Relationships of media use to political cynicism and efficacy: A preliminary study of young South Korean voters

Abstract

The role of mass media in political campaigns has been extensively studied in the United States, but there is little knowledge of how media influence the Korean political campaign process. This study focuses on young Korean voters and investigates the relationships of their media behaviour (use of traditional media and the Internet) to political cynicism and political efficacy. A pencil‐and‐paper survey was administrated to 297 students in a Korean university. The results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses show that use of radio and the Internet for political information reduces cynicism, use of radio increases inefficacy, and use of newspapers lowers inefficacy. The findings also indicate that media content‐related negativism increases cynicism and decreases inefficacy.