The Presence of Hyperlinks on Social Network Sites: A Case Study of Cyworld in Korea

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the extent to which hyperlinks appear within user-submitted comments on Korean social network service Cyworld. Links to social movements were common as was news stories regarding the bleak economic forecast. Males were found to post hyperlinks more frequently than females, and those politicians in the ruling party received more links than those in opposition parties. The purpose of posting a link was evaluated and tasks such as performing Message Amplification and Network Building were prominent. Natural-language processing revealed primarily negative sentiment towards the governing president. The findings go some way to indicate how the presence of hyperlinks and short messages within online dialogs can provide an insight into public perception as a whole. © 2013 International Communication Association.