社交媒體機器人在政治宣傳及科技選戰之運用：以臺灣選舉為例. (Using social bots in political campaigns and elections in Taiwan)

Abstract

Socialbots have become a crucial data-driven technological election mean. This mixed-method research which used expert interviews and participant observation to investigate how Taiwanese recent elections utilized socialbots for political campaigning. We have interviewed 14 experts (technologists, platform operators, political marketers, and government officers). The findings analyze socialbots’ communication model, operational strategies, and effects. Additionally, this study conducted participant observations of Line chatbots created by 2020 presidential candidates and Taipei major, in order to examine their content design and interactional processes with users. This research can advance the understanding of socialbots’ applications in Taiwanese political arena.

台灣政治人物常透過臉書、LINE等社交媒體與民眾溝通（Christ, 2008），聊天機器（chatbots）於2016年在台灣政壇現身，2018台灣地方選戰期間，創新性強的候選人運用社交媒體機器人（socialbot）科技，試圖加強選民互動，以達到溝通、固票或吸引新支持者之效果(Lin & Wang, 2020)。電腦為社會行動者（CASA; Computer as social actors）學派指出，聊天機器人有潛力成為具人類特徵的社交代理人（Holtgraves et al., 2007），Gunkel（2012）強調人工智慧機器人不僅是「人類 傳播中介媒體」，隨著科技演進，它們的重要性將趨近人類被當成「另一互動者（another interactant）」。社交機器人成為近年新興選戰科技相關文獻甚少，本研 究為填補學術缺口，將社交機器人定義為「在社交媒體上以程式運作之自動化人格」（Woolley, 2018; Woolley & Howard, 2016），研究目的聚焦於探究社交機器人在政治宣傳及競選活動之運用策略、功能及效應。