(Special Issue: Cultural Variability in Communication) Jinyoung Tak; Lynda Lee Kaid; Soobum Lee.
Communication Research, July-August 1997 v24 n4 p413(18)
Author's Abstract: COPYRIGHT 1997 Sage Publications, Inc.
This article focuses on the cultural aspect of political advertising. The form and content of political advertising messages appearing in major daily newspapers during the final phase of a presidential election campaign were analyzed to compare the differences and similarities of political communication between the United States and Korea. Political television commercials from the 1992 presidential election campaigns of both countries are also analyzed. It is obvious that the context of communication, the degree of uncertainty avoidance, and nonverbal expressions comprised important cultural parameters that ultimately serve as determinants of the different cultural orientations of the two countries. Findings from the content analysis indicate that political advertising messages transmitted by the American and Korean candidates were highly reflective of their cultural orientations. Political advertising therefore appeared as a conspicuous indicator of cultural values because it showed clear differences in American and Korean cultural patterns.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 Sage Publications, Inc.
The underlying relationship between the content of political advertising and the cultural values of a society has been recognized by researchers. Political advertising has an overt function - to persuade voters. The inner structures of political advertising, however, bear important cultural meanings and connotations that must be uncovered to make clear the full meaning of advertising messages. As a result, there seems to be little doubt that culture plays an important role in the perception and practices of political advertising. Cross-cultural studies of political advertising have provided evidence that political advertising content mirrors the cultural values of a given society. In other words, political advertising reflects the uniqueness of an indigenous culture, for both Western and non-Western countries.
To begin with, many researchers agree that culture does affect the reception and acceptance of an advertising message; the advertising message therefore reflects the culture in which it appears. In communication (which takes place as a deliberate form in cross-cultural political advertising), a sender's cultural background affects the overall message form, whereas the receiver's cultural background determines message perception.
Political advertising as a special type of political communication plays an essential role during the election campaign in democratic politics. Campaign advertising is considered one vehicle of media contact, even more effective than the news in carrying a message to the voter (Latimer, 1989). Especially at the national level, presidential candidates must control the image that voters receive because these voters will probably not see the candidate in person and also because news coverage of presidential candidates is typically distorted or superficial, tending to focus on the "horse race" aspects of the campaign (Patterson & McClure, 1976). Of the various ways to transmit messages through mass media, political advertising thus comprises the only communicative means under the direct and complete control of the candidates. In retrospect, most researchers agree that this new type of message conveyance exerts the most powerful effect on election campaigns (Kaid, 1981; Kern, 1989).
Essentially, candidates now run for office instead of stand for an office in a traditional sense (Johnson & Elebash, 1986). Even Kotler (1982) defines political candidates as products to sell with inherent marketing strategies. In a primary sense, however, political advertising markets a candidate for public office, where the things that the candidate professes to stand for are pertinent to the campaign. Political candidates thus share their political convictions and subsequent direction of leadership through political advertising. At the same time, however, they also show their individual personalities and images for their own political interests through political advertising. Regardless of the form it takes, the ultimate objective of political advertising is to persuade a group of citizens to vote for a particular candidate who represents a particular approach to dealing with the problems and issues of the nation, state, or community at large.
Despite spreading awareness of the importance of the study of communication, the dominant perspective toward communication comes primarily from the United States. The purpose of this article therefore lies in presenting an alternative way of looking at communication by analyzing and categorizing cultural assumptions as found in Korean culture, in subsequent comparison and contrast with those in their U.S. counterparts. This work then views the assumed divergences between the two cultures under study by viewing them as differing in either degree or emphasis rather than as a strict dichotomy.
More specifically, this study examines the contents of political advertising messages in presidential elections to compare formally the cultural aspects of political communications in the United States and in Korea. With the aim of objectively categorizing, measuring, and evaluating information content, this examination embodies a thorough analysis of both newspaper and television political advertisements presented in the presidential election campaigns of both countries.
Studies of Political Advertising: Image Ads and Negative Ads
Political advertising remains a dominant area of interest in political communication. Several studies have provided historical perspectives on political advertising within presidential campaigns (Diamond & Bates, 1988; Jamieson, 1988). Early research highlighted the traditional argument that political advertising contains issue and image. That is, issue advertisements are composed of statements that suggest some future policy action and image advertisements (as related to the references) suggest either general personal characteristics or constructions unrelated to policy.
The concern about the content of political advertising, issue and image, has its roots in the classic democratic voting theory assumptions that votes should be rational and based on issues (Berelson, 1966; Kaid, 1981). The national media frequently are now charged with interpreting presidential campaigns more as a game, focusing on image-oriented personality appeals rather than on substance, despite the wisdom in democratic theory that issues and policy alternatives would be preferable as more appropriate bases for voter choice (Latimer, 1984, 1985). In the first empirical work on this question, Joslyn (1980) found that nearly 60% of political spots had issue content, although much of this did not constitute specific issue positions. In the 1992 presidential election, Kaid (1994) found no statistically significant differences in the number of issue and image ads run by the three major candidates.
American campaign styles are often characterized as aggressive and highly negative, pointing to another major focus of research on political spots - negative advertising. Kaid and Johnston (1991) examined the use of negative ads in a comprehensive sample of presidential ads from 1960 to 1988. They found that the use of negative ads had dramatically increased since 1970. Moreover, Kern (1989) has suggested that political consultants and their candidates began to use negative political advertising differently in the 1980s. Consequently, both challengers and incumbents make extensive use of negative advertising, and negative ads no longer are used only near the end of a political race.
Because of the increasing popularity and the overwhelming success of negative advertising, research concerning this topic has continued to grow. The fact that some political advertising studies show a boomerang or backlash effect of negative ads on the sponsor of the ad (Garramone, 1984; Merritt, 1984) has not decreased the use of negative ads because research has also shown that negative ads can be highly successful for the sponsor (Ansolabehere & Iyengar, 1995; Garramone, 1984; Kaid & Boydston, 1987).
Cultural Assumptions
Generally, one of the characteristics separating humans from other animals is the rapid development of culture. In this context, culture is usually referred to as the systems of knowledge shared by a group of people. Culture and communication are thus inseparable and interrelated. Hall's (1959) schema provides a comprehensive, conceptual design based on the notion that culture is communication and communication is culture. In addition, the process of understanding people from other cultures and their communication patterns is important to eliminate misunderstandings.
Barnlund (1975) describes some general characteristics of American and Asian communication patterns. In his description, Barnlund (1975) suggests that Americans are seen as more informal, spontaneous, talkative, and verbally explicit. By contrast, Asians, are more formal, reserved, and rely more on traditional modes of expression. These differences are explained by Hall (1977) in terms of high- or low-context messages.
The Korean culture remains quite different from the United States. Here, the basic ways in which Koreans and Americans communicate emerge primarily from their basic philosophies. These philosophical differences between East and West thus tend to differentiate perceptions of communication. In Western culture, people believe that words do, in fact, mean what they say. For example, Aristotle insisted that clarity is the first virtue of good style (Oliver, 1962). Hall and Hewitt (1973), however, believe that Americans regard communication as a tool for conflict resolution. Nevertheless, the Eastern view holds that communication is of limited value in solving problems because truth and solutions become apparent in the natural course of events. This belief has made Koreans seem less communicative and less expressive in both verbal and nonverbal behavior than Americans (Kim, 1992).
It should be noted here that we need to differentiate the intercultural from the cross-cultural. Although these terms are often used synonymously, the term cross-cultural traditionally implies a comparison of some phenomena across cultures. Obviously, intercultural communication is composed of an interaction between members of different cultures. To understand similarities and differences in communications between cultures, it is necessary to have a way of talking about how cultures differ. In this sense, we can find variables on which cultures can be either different or similar in explaining these communications. Gudykunst (1987) refers to these variables as "dimensions of sociocultural variability." Moreover, society, social system, and culture are all interrelated and have an impact on communication. Sociocultural variability is influenced by two major factors: ecology (or resources) and history (Gudykunst, 1987). These dimensions of sociocultural variability affect the specific values and norms that predominate in different cultures. These values and norms also allow us to understand why patterns of communication are similar or different across cultural boundaries. Although there are many dimensions on which cultures differ, this work focuses on (a) nonverbal behaviors, (b) Hofstede's (1980) dimensions of cultural variability, and (c) Hall's notion of low- and high-context culture.
Advertising usually consists of verbal and nonverbal messages. Scholars have long acknowledged the importance of nonverbal and visual cues in message reception (Birdwhistell, 1970; Burns & Beier, 1973). In fact, many of these elements are particularly important to the way politicians present themselves and play a major role in Kaid's conceptualization of "videostyle" in political advertising (Kaid & Davidson, 1986). More specifically, nonverbal behavior is "a vast, ill-defined, and unbounded set of activities that can include almost anything" (Scheflen, 1979, p. 2). All communication except that which is coded in words is generally referred to as nonverbal communication (Eisenberg & Smith, 1971).
In addition to simple verbal behaviors being conditioned by the overall cultural milieu, nonverbal behaviors also reflect many of the cultural patterns we acquire throughout the socialization process (Gudykunst & Kim, 1992). Hence, whereas verbal behaviors are mostly explicit, nonverbal behaviors are spontaneous, ambiguous, and often beyond our conscious awareness and control (Gudykunst & Kim, 1992). Together with verbal and other contextual cues, nonverbal messages thus aid us in interpreting the total meaning of a communication experience (Gudykunst & Kim, 1992). Despite this, the importance of visual images in advertisements as a cultural parameter has not been studied comprehensively. It is solely through the influence of culture that people ultimately learn to communicate nonverbally and to differentiate their manner of encoding nonverbal messages.
For some, nonverbal communication is limited to such behaviors as facial expressions, hand and arm gestures, and spacing; for others, it includes the acoustic, paralinguistic phenomena that accompany a language (Mehrabian, 1971). This study primarily limits the nonverbal aspects of culture to hand and arm gestures and also clothing. Nonverbal expressions of candidates are symbolic representations of cultural values.
A candidate's behavior occurs in a given context, and contexts serve as cues for judgments about a candidate (Moriarty & Garramone, 1986). Contextual cues can signify a person's role. Formal dress may signify a candidate role of greater importance than would casual dress, in which case a formal setting for behavior may be similarly interpreted (Moriarty & Garramone, 1986).
Next, body movements may also indicate the intensity of an emotional state. Hand and arm movement is another form of culture-specific expression. In the Eastern view, adults who use many gestures when they speak are thought to be childish because repression of overt bodily expression connotes self-control (Ramsey, 1984). On the other hand, Western culture is likely to use strong expressive gestures to convey messages. Consequently, one's ability to communicate is measured by verbal and nonverbal expressive skills, with these differences assumed to be carried into nonverbal expressions as used in print-media advertising illustrations (Kim, 1992).
Nevertheless, not all nonverbal communication is carried out with bodily movements. Cultural norms and values are also projected through style of dress (Kim, 1992). The way one dresses may represent "deep-seated psychic intentions" (Eisenberg & Smith, 1971, p. 105). Dress style hints at our self-image and the image we seek to project to others. Thus, clothing is an important nonverbal parameter in conveying messages. Clothing is also part of a culture's communication system and, as such, helps interpret both the messages and the value system of a given culture.
Hofstede (1980) derived empirically four dimensions of sociocultural variability: individualism-collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity-femininity. Individualism-collectivism is the major dimension of cultural variability used to explain cross-cultural differences in behavior. Emphasis is placed on an individual's goals in individualistic cultures, whereas group goals have precedence over individuals' goals in collectivistic cultures. Another dimension that distinguishes Western from Eastern culture is uncertainty avoidance. This involves a lack of tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty in a sociocultural system, which expresses less tolerance for people with deviant ideas or behaviors along with a greater need for formal rules and absolute truth. Uncertainty avoidance thus applies to understanding of different cultures. People in high uncertainty avoidance cultures tend to avoid ambiguity. Such people develop rules and rituals for every possible situation. In this light, Korean culture is classified as one with high uncertainty avoidance, whereas American culture is classified as one with low uncertainty avoidance.
Although individualism-collectivism defines broad differences between cultures, Hall's (1977) low- and high-context notion focuses on cultural differences in communication processes. Hall differentiates cultures on the basis of the communication that predominates in the culture. Moreover, Hall (1977) also contends that the way messages are encoded and decoded depends on the context. Sociocultural systems vary in the importance they place on context in communication, with high-context communication culture (Eastern culture) being a long-lived, cohesive force that is slow to change, unifying the sociocultural system. Low-context communication culture, on the other hand, does not unify the sociocultural system. In a low-context culture, most information is then contained in either explicit or verbal messages. Consequently, whereas the culture of the United States is placed on the low-context culture, Korean culture is a high-context culture (Gudykunst & Kim, 1992). Members of low-context, individualistic cultures therefore tend to communicate in a direct fashion, whereas members of high-context, collectivistic cultures tend to communicate in an indirect fashion.
Hypotheses
Given the growing importance of political advertising, this study employed systematic content analysis to accomplish a cross-cultural, comparative analysis of political advertising for presidential campaigns since the 1960s in the United States and in Korea. Based on the assumption that nonverbal and verbal messages (as transmitted by candidates in Korean and American political advertisements) are related to their respective cultural orientations, we put forth the following hypotheses.
The first group of hypotheses are based on Hall's (1977) differentiations of cultures on the basis of the context. In a low-context culture (United States), people express conflict or dissatisfaction openly. Members of high-context culture (Korea) communicate in an indirect fashion, thus
Hypothesis 1.1: Korean candidates will rely significantly less on negative ads than U.S. candidates.
Hypothesis 1.2: When compared to U.S. candidates, Korean candidates will have significantly more implied comparison ads than direct negative ads.
Uncertainty avoidance culture involves the lack of tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, which expresses less tolerance for people or groups with deviant ideas or behaviors and greater need for formal rules and absolute truth (Hofstede, 1980). Korea has a high uncertainty avoidance culture where communication is centered on rules, norms, moralities, and proper behaviors.
Hypothesis 2.1: Compared to U.S. candidates, Korean candidates will focus significantly more on issues rather than images.
Hypothesis 2.2: Korean candidates will use ethical appeals significantly more often than U.S. candidates.
Research strongly suggests that major cultural differences are invested in nonverbal behaviors because they represent basic core values that are slow to change (Kim, 1992). Koreans are trained not to show their emotions, making them seem less communicative, with less expressive body movements. The desire for proper behaviors, along with the greater need for formal rules and norms, have correspondingly produced formality in clothing and in social appearance in Korea.
Hypothesis 3.1: Korean candidates will use their hands and arms significantly less often than U.S. candidates.
Hypothesis 3.2: Korean candidates will wear formal dress significantly more often than U.S. candidates.
Hypothesis 3.3: Korean candidates will use formal settings significantly more often than U.S. candidates.
Method
Advertising Sample
The population of this study was defined as all political advertisements appearing in major daily newspapers during the final phase of a presidential election campaign (30 days before the election day) in both countries. The time period of 30 days proved to be sufficient to encompass the appearance of most advertisements during the campaign, particularly because the newspaper advertising was concentrated at the end of the campaign (Bowers, 1972; Mullen, 1963; Parkinson, 1970). A total of 14 presidential elections were studied. In the case of the United States, presidential elections held in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992 were chosen for this study. In the case of Korea, presidential elections held in 1963, 1967, 1971, 1981, 1987, and 1992 were chosen for the study.
Political television spots of 1992 presidential election campaigns of both countries were also analyzed. This study involved the single election year of 1992 because Korea had political advertisements on television in the 1992 election campaign for the first time ever. In this election, a total of 10 ads in the electronic media (i.e., 5 radio and 5 television ads) were allowed for each candidate. As a result, a total of 20 television ads were aired in this election campaign.
In the case of Korea, all of the television political advertisements of the 1992 presidential election campaign were analyzed. In the U.S. case, the television political advertisements of all three presidential candidates (Clinton, Bush, and Perot) were analyzed. Here, ads were obtained from the Political Commercial Archive in the Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma. Instead of sampling political spots, the decision was made to analyze a complete set of all political spots from this election year. As a consequence, a total of 90 television ads of the 1992 U.S. election campaign were analyzed.
To compare across cultural boundaries, it is necessary first to establish functional, linguistic, metric, and sample equivalence. Sample equivalence needs a special caution: Most cross-cultural research uses "sample of convenience" rather than randomly selected samples (Brislin & Baumgardner, 1971). Consequently, true random samples are an ideal but often not completely met goal. Although samples of convenience are the norm, researchers must demonstrate that samples from different cultures are equivalent and thereby rule out other explanatory variables (Gudykunst, 1987). Because random sampling is almost impossible in cross-cultural research, steps should then be taken to ensure that nonrandom samples lead to good research. The major daily newspapers in each country were selected for the present study to respond to the study questions.
In the case of Korea, four major national dailies comprise more than 700,000 circulations each: Chosun Ilbo, Hankuk Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, and the Joong-Ang Daily News. In the case of the United States, eight major dailies were selected for the present study: The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Houston Post, and Atlanta Constitution. To achieve sample equivalence for the present study, it would have been preferable to select four major national dailies in the United States. There exists, however, no true meaning of national dailies in the United States. Therefore, this study used newspapers chosen on the basis of following criteria: geographical region, daily circulation, time zones, and political influences.
Categories
The categories were adapted from other content analysis studies of political advertising, particularly Kaid's conceptualization of videostyle (Kaid & Davidson, 1986; Kaid & Johnsten, 1991), which incorporates verbal, nonverbal, and video production characteristics of spots. The categories included type of commercial (image or issue with issue ads emphasizing a policy issue or proposal and image ads emphasizing the candidate's background, characteristics, or qualifications), focus of commercial (positive commercials focused on the candidate sponsoring the ad, negative commercials focused on criticisms of the opponent), facial expressions, hands and gestures (nonuse in which no hands and arms are used or hands are held downward, mild use in which hands are raised by below the shoulder line, and broad use in which hands are raised above the shoulder line or are very expressive), dress (formal with candidate in suit and tie or informal with candidate in casual dress), dominant setting (formal as in office or professional setting or informal as in personal settings), and eye contact (direct or indirect).
Categories were also developed to measure types of appeals used by the ads. Types of appeals included logical appeals (using evidence, statistics, examples), emotional appeals (invoking feelings or emotions such as happiness, pride, anger, or patriotism), and ethical appeals (relying on the character of the candidate or the speaker). Appeals were also designated as fear appeals if they attempted to convince the audience that harm would come to them or to those they were concerned about.
Coders and Reliability
The advertisements were coded by trained coders who were fluent in both the Korean and English languages. Three coders underwent two training sessions, the initial one for explanation of the coding system and categories and a second one to reinforce the category definitions and work through any problem categories or definitions. Intercoder reliability was determined by applying Holsti's formula(1) to a sample of 15 ads (10 newspaper ads and 5 television ads). The results yielded an average intercoder reliability across all categories of .86 for both newspaper and television ads.
Results
With regard to the first set of hypotheses, a significant relationship between verbal and nonverbal messages transmitted in political ads was found to exist. Television and newspaper ads were considered together in these analyses. All related hypotheses were confirmed with a chi-square test at the significance level of .01.
Hypothesis 1.1. Korean candidates will rely significantly less on negative ads than U.S. candidates. As shown in Table 1, a significant difference in the frequencies of opponent negative ads between the United States and Korean candidates was noted, [[Chi].sup.2] (1, n = 894) = 19.27, p [less than] .0001. Larger percentages (47%) of U.S. candidates used negative ads than did Korean candidates (33%). As expected, the findings shown in Table 1 indicate that the Korean candidates were more conservative in the usage of negative ads than their American counterparts.
This finding validates the fact that the context of communication is a good determinant of the different cultural orientations toward the use of negativity between the two countries. According to Hall (1977), although members of low-context cultures tend to express conflict openly, it is not polite to disagree openly in a high-context culture. It should, however, be kept in mind that there might be other plausible causes for the differences, such as the political system, the political situation, and the level of technology development. For instance, in addition to cultural variations, deviant political situations due to a military-dominated government might have accentuated this phenomenon. Most opposition leaders attempting to create a more democratic system have had to contend with severe restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly enforced by authoritarian leaders even during the election period. Furthermore, negative ads were banned in the Korean presidential election held in 1981 because the ruling party candidate seized power through a military coup. Alternatively, in the United States, there are virtually no legal restrictions on the content of political advertisements, in newspapers or television.
Hypothesis 1.2: When compared to U.S. candidates, Korean candidates will have significantly more implied comparison ads than direct negative ads. As shown in Table 1, an analysis of the relationship between the types of negative ads and culture identified larger percentages (87%) of U.S. candidates in the direct negative ads category, but smaller percentages (48.6%) of Korean candidates fell into the direct negative ads category, [[Chi].sup.2] (1, n = 361) = 68.02, p [less than] .0001. The differences in the types of negative ads indicate that U.S. candidates were significantly more expressive of negativity than Korean candidates.
Cultural distinctions between the two countries were obvious in the types of negative ads. As a result, cultural values of avoiding frontal attack still remained distinct in Korea. For instance, typical Korean negative attacks [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED] used implied comparison ads to lure the voter into making the comparison between candidates. Most U.S. candidates, however, employed negative ads to attack directly the opponent or directly compare the opponent with the candidate.
Hypothesis 2.1: Compared to U.S. candidates, Korean candidates will focus significantly more on issues rather than images. Here, the results of the analysis of the relationship between the emphasis of ads and culture show that U.S. candidates were significantly more likely than Korean candidates to emphasize personal images over policy issues, [[Chi].sup.2] (1, n = 894) = 7.27, p [less than] .007. As shown in Table 1, U.S. candidates relied on personal images in 44% of their ads. On the other hand, only 35% of the total Korean ads were classified under this category. However, both U.S. and Korean candidates emphasized more issues than images in their ads.
The above findings indicate that the degree of uncertainty avoidance is highly reflective of indigenous cultural orientations toward the dominant emphasis in ads between the two countries. As a result, uncertainty avoidance culture involves the lack of tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, which expresses less tolerance for people or groups with deviant ideas or behaviors and greater need for formal rules and absolute truth (Hofstede, 1980).
Notwithstanding these differences as related to culture, party-based voting was much stronger in Korea until the mid-1980s than in the United States. For example, the United States has long had an electoral system that is uniquely personalized and candidate-based, producing a greater emphasis on personal images over policy issues.
Hypothesis 2.2: Korean candidates tend to use ethical appeals significantly more often than U.S. candidates. A significant difference in the usage of ethical (source credibility) appeals between the American candidates and Korean candidates was noted, [[Chi].sup.2] (1, n = 894) = 30.58, p [less than] .0001. As shown in Table 1, a larger percentage (29%) of Korean candidates used ethical appeals, whereas a smaller percentage (14%) of U.S. candidates used ethical appeals. The results indicate that Korean candidates used ethical appeals significantly more often than their American counterparts.
The Korean communication pattern is influenced heavily by the obligations of Confucianism. Confucianism is an ideal ethics/moral system intended to govern all the relationships within social unity in Korea. As a probable result, communication is centered on rules, norms, moralities, and proper behaviors. Korean candidates were more likely to invoke qualifications as candidates. Certain candidates even directly asked voters, "Who is the most qualified person for the presidency?"
Hypothesis 3.1: Korean candidates will use their hands and arms significantly less often than U.S. candidates. The relative degree of body movements was analyzed through the types of candidate hand and arm gestures. The findings illustrate that political advertising did reflect the cultural orientations of the two countries, [[Chi].sup.2] (1, n = 319) = 41.66, p [less than] .0006. As shown in Table 2, larger percentages (78%) of U.S. candidates used hand and arm gestures, whereas smaller percentages (62%) of Korean candidates fell into this category. The findings show that U.S. candidates used their hands and arms significantly more often.
The majority of the U.S. candidates showed a mild use of hands (i.e., shaking hands), whereas many Korean candidates remained passive. Korean candidates (31%) displayed broad use of hand and arm gestures (i.e., waving hands) more frequently than did American candidates (11%). However, the general pattern showed that Korean candidates were less expressive in hand and arm gestures than their U.S. counterparts. In Korea, adults who use many gestures when they speak are thought to be childish, because repression of overt bodily expressions connotes self-control in eastern societies (Ramsey, 1984).
Hypothesis 3.2: Korean candidates will wear formal dress significantly more often than U.S. candidates. A significant difference in candidate dress between U.S. candidates and Korean candidates was noted, [[Chi].sup.2] (1, n = 457) = 6.85, p [less than] .009. These findings indicate that Korean candidates did wear formal dress significantly more often than their U.S. counterparts. Table 2 shows that a larger percentage of Korean candidates (87.8%) did wear formal [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 2 OMITTED] dress, but smaller percentages of American candidates (78.5%) were classified under the formal dress category. However, both American and Korean candidates preferred to wear formal dress to emphasize their role as a candidate.
Koreans, whose culture is based on group-centered identifications, are characterized with uniformity in clothing. In addition, the desire for propriety and the interest in social appearance produced a tradition of formality in clothing (Kim, 1992). Most Korean candidates wore formal dress of suit and tie. American candidates, however, wore the informal dress of shirts and sweaters more often than Korean candidates.
Hypothesis 3.3: Korean candidates will use formal settings significantly more often than U.S. candidates. In both countries, formal indoor settings (such as an office or other institutional setting) were frequently used. Despite this, the results of an analysis of relationship between the dominant setting and culture showed that the Korean candidates used formal settings significantly more often, [[Chi].sup.2] (1, n = 323) = 7.82, p [less than] .005. As shown in Table 2, larger percentages of Korean (65.7%) candidates used formal settings, whereas smaller percentages of American candidates (50.3%) fell into the formal settings category.
Contextual cues such as settings can signify a person's role. The Korean communication pattern is centered on rules, norms, and proper behaviors. Thus, formal setting may signify a candidate role of greater importance than would informal setting. Korean candidates used an outdoor campaign speech setting most often, whereas an indoor office setting was used most often by American candidates.
Conclusions
This study analyzed the presidential ads of both Korea and the United States to explore differences as related to cultural distinctions. To the extent that clear differences exist between American and Korean cultural patterns, political advertising appears to manifest these differences. The findings from the above content analysis provide evidence that political advertising primarily reflects the uniqueness of indigenous cultures. Furthermore, it was obvious that the context of communication, the degree of uncertainty avoidance, and nonverbal behaviors were important cultural parameters that served as determinants of the different cultural orientations between the two countries. Consistent with this assertion, political advertising messages were found to be highly related to their cultural orientations.
Context of communication served as a good indicator of different cultural orientation between Western and Eastern cultures. Hall (1977) differentiates cultures on the basis of the communication that predominates in the culture. In the low-context culture of America, people express conflict or dissatisfaction openly, with most information contained within explicit or articulated messages. In the high-context culture of Korea, however, most information is encoded in the physical context or internalized in the person. Members of a high-context culture tend to communicate in an indirect fashion, depending on intuitive (or commonsense) understanding rather than on the specific words spoken in the case of interpreting meanings. Korean candidates tended to use negative ads less frequently and produced direct negative ads less frequently than did U.S. candidates - a reflection of each culture.
The degree of uncertainty avoidance also proved to be a good determinant of different cultural patterns between Western and Eastern cultures. As stated before, uncertainty avoidance cultures combine a lack of tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty, which expresses less tolerance for people or groups with deviant ideas or behaviors, along with a greater need for formal rules and absolute truth (Hofstede, 1980). As a result, people in high uncertainty avoidance cultures try to avoid ambiguity. Whereas Korean culture is considered a high uncertainty avoidance culture, American culture is a low uncertainty avoidance culture. As expected, U.S. candidates were inclined to focus on images more frequently and also express specific issue positions less frequently than did Korean candidates - also a reflection of each culture.
When considering nonverbal communication, three nonverbal expressions provided good indicators of different cultural patterns between Western and Eastern cultures. To begin with, our culture and most of our nonverbal behaviors are learned, passed on from generation to generation, and involve shared understanding (Samovar & Porter, 1991). Therefore, major cultural differences are embedded in nonverbal behaviors because they are basic core values that are slow to change (Kim, 1992). Koreans are trained not to show their emotions. This has made Koreans seem both less communicative and less expressive in body movements. The desire for proper behaviors (and the great need for formal rules and norms) have correspondingly produced formality in clothing and in social appearance in Korea. As the probable result of different cultural orientations toward nonverbal behaviors, Korean candidates tended to use their hands and arms less frequently, wear formal dress more frequently, and use formal settings more frequently than did American candidates, therefore reflecting the individuality of each indigenous culture.
Political advertising messages are generally reflective of their cultural orientations. Korean political culture exhibited a lesser degree of tolerance for the introduction of negative political advertising than American political culture. Negative political advertising practice seems to be self-restrained, because the cultural values of avoiding frontal attack or competition are coupled with the partial regulation of a presidential election law in Korea. In recent years, negative political advertising practice has become more self-restrained in Korea. Candidates now seem to worry too much about a backlash effect of negative advertising on the sponsor, the utmost concern thus becoming the construction of a favorable candidate image based on marketing strategies.
The interdependence among various cultures may provide the opportunity and the need for cross-cultural research. In coming years, those cultures will have increasing contact with each other. This increase in interaction between Western and Eastern cultures therefore necessitates continued examination of cross-cultural differences in communication behavior and strategies.
Note
1. The specific formula used for intercoder reliability, as suggested by Holsti, (modified in this study for more than two coders) is
R = 2([C.sub.1,2])/[C.sub.1]+[C.sub.2]
where [C.sub.1,2] = the number of category assignments both coders agree on and [C.sub.1] + [C.sub.2] = the total category assignments made by both coders.
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Jinyoung Tak is an assistant professor of communication at Keimyunk University, Korea. He is primarily interested in the topic of political advertising.
Lynda Lee Kaid is a Georgia Lynn Cross research professor of communication at the University of Oklahoma, where she also serves as director of the Political Communication Center. She is the author and/or editor of 12 books, including Mediated Politics in Two Cultures, New Perspectives on Political Advertising, and Political Advertising in Western Democracies.
Soobum Lee is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma. He currently is working on several projects on the topic of postmodernism and political communication.