Kim Je-dong, Yoon Do-hyun, Choi lan, Song Il-gook. These are the actors and actress who have very clear political opinions and are only some of those who have expressed their political opinions openly.

There has been a dispute about expressing of famous people’s political opinion. For example, judoka Kim Jae-bum had joined the ’Park Geun-hye Camp’ but after the argument arose, he resigned. The reason was that Kim Jae-bum’s participation in the national competition could be seen as an election campaign.
Some people may argue that famous people should not express their political opinions openly, because their opinion can influence the political opinions of many people. It is true in some degree. So parties are asking the famous people to promote the parties. For example, in the US, the Democratic Party invited actors and actresses to the national Democratic convention. Actually, on September 6th, Scarlett Johansson had a speech in support for President Obama.
And there is a good effect indeed. The reason is that many people are indifferent to politics nowadays. Voter turnout has been continuously decreasing. In this situation, famous people’s political opinion can attract people’s attention on politics. Also the argument of ‘Some people’ is not really realizable. Selective influence theories and strengthening effect theories can explain that. According to selective influence theories, when individuals get other people’s opinions, they recognize and remember it selectively. Therefore the person who hates A party does not want to be exposed to the supportive opinion about A party. This person recognizes supportive opinion negatively and only remembers the bad aspects of supportive opinion. Also according to strengthening effect theories, when individuals face other people’s opinions, others’ opinions do not carry over into the change of one’s attitude or opinion and just reinforce one’s opinion.

Surely, biased opinion of famous people can be a huge problem. However in this situation, among many people indifferent to politics, expressing of famous people’s political opinion will be a good means to gather attention about politics.