“President, We Choose”, Power Of Netizen

“We, Netizens will change President.”

Approaching Presidential elections in 21 days sees Internet’s raising voice.

There are a lot of online campaigns of presidential candidates and campaign regarding fair elections as well as opinion of netizens. Recently, criticism arose regarding Internet sites that Presidential candidates are managing, which received withdrawal order.

▽ What’s happening on Internet?; “Hello, Netizens. I am presidential candidate OOO of △△△.” In Daum Communication presidential site, there are 2 minutes pop-up windows of each presidential candidate. This is a campaign for ‘netizens’ targeting youth in the age group of 20 to 30, specializing in background color, and their ability and contents of speaking. Each candidate site targets youth such as colorful, political cartoons or cute caricature of candidates. Nowadays more than hundred opinions come on bulletin board.

Daum manages one such field of specialization of presidential candidates with 2002 Presidential Election Voters Organization. It plans to verify Presidential candidates by suggesting 10 innovation tasks to them, which Netizen had chosen through ‘being one of one million voters’. 3,700 members registered in this menu since 14th, the opening day. MSN collects opinion of voters through messenger with ‘ civil liberties’ groups. Netizens can deliver their opinion regarding each social issue through messenger in a very short time.

Some portal sites including Freechal are carrying out fair election campaign by AVATA and KTF provides information of Presidential elections through mobile. In Internet university newspaper ‘Younews’, it introduces participation in elections under the banner ‘let’s go, play, select and change’. Online questionnaires are also brisk. In case of Daum, 12,500 people replied questionnaires regarding unification of Roh Moo Hyun and Chung Mong Jun in three days.

Regarding order of withdrawal of Presidential candidates sites by CEC (Central Election Commission), 80 percent of Netizens are complaining saying, “It ignored feature of Internet democracy.”

▽ Can power of internet change politics?; Such a fever can’t be compared to presidential elections 5 years ago. Development of Internet is changing politics and culture.

It targets young voters who are indifferent to elections and is different from the past when presidential elections targeted street campaigns. Analyzing and grasping public promise and policy of presidential candidates in just one click is the biggest attraction of online campaigns. Internet is a medium to clarify response of Presidential candidates.

Daum concerned who was in charge of producing pop-up windows of presidential candidates expressed his surprise saying, “The candidates who could ignore young people in the past are greeting Netizens aggressively agreeing these pop-up windows.”

However, there are some side effects like blaming certain candidates without reason and too emotional criticism. We can warning by site manger, “Don’t bring offline behavior online.” How to connect online movement to real election and participation in politics by netizens is also a problem.

A person concerned in Citizen’s Action Network said, “It is meaningful that it becomes easy for young voters to approach election culture or information.” And “I hope we can bring them up as right voters in the long term”.

Jung-Eun Lee lightee@donga.com