Will UCCs Turn Tide for Presidential Election?

By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

As the December presidential election nears, presidential contenders have been busy offering their campaign pledges.

The large number of campaign pledges has caused confusion amongst people and is planting doubts regarding their usefulness.

Additionally, until recently people have had no place to voice their opinions about everyday things, like the increasing bus fares and the controversy over the Korean film ``D-War.''

Today UCCs, uploaded video footage on the Internet, are playing a major role in connecting those average people and presidential candidates.

In 1960 John F. Kennedy made Richard Nixon sweat in a televised debate, this new medium was said to be a powerful campaigning tool.

In 2002, President Roh Moo-hyun beat his powerful rival Lee Hoi-chang of the main opposition Grand National Party through building up an image for himself on the Internet as a young and reformative politician.

According to reports, he was widely supported by young people, especially Internet users.

Now, UCCs should also be included in the new powerful tool category.

On YouTube, a video-sharing Web site, thousands of clips related to the 2008 U.S. presidential election have been uploaded.

Politician supporters have also been battling it out through UCCs. One artist sang of her support for Barack Obama, a presidential hopeful from the Democrat Party, which immediately drew a counter attack from another artist, who sang about Obama's archrival Hillary Rodam Clinton.

Voters Speaks Up Through UCCs

Korean voters are joining the international trend by voicing their opinions through UCCs.

Pandora TV, the biggest site for sharing amateur-made video clips in the country, created a section on their site where people could upload their queries to presidential candidates including the Grand National Party's (GNP) Lee Myung-bak, Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party (UNDP) and independent Moon Kook-hyun.

Also, people are free to question the nominees on any issue through UCCs.

Two men in pink pants asked whether they could get tax cuts if they entertained people in front of the National Assembly.

In another clip, a lady raised the issue of ``wild goose daddies,'' fathers left alone to work in Korea and financially support their children's study abroad.

Three young men comically sang a song, satirizing the current low unemployment rate.

This section on the site is a new type of agora, which acted as a forum for the citizens of the ancient Greek polis. It has caught people's attention and has seen huge participation by netizens.

As of Oct. 19, nearly 4,000 video clips related to the presidential election have been posted.

With the Dec. 19 election just around the corner, the number of visits to the Web site has tripled, Manager Kim Gwang-hui of Pandora TV told The Korea Times.

``Netizens are showing good a response toward the election-related page,'' she said. ``We pick 10 of the most hit UCCs every week and about one-third of them are about the upcoming election.''

However, this modern agora is not a form of one-way communication.

The company chooses four to five UCCs on pending issues and sends them to presidential candidates.

So far, Chung Dong-young, Moon Kook-hyun, and presidential nominee Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) have given direct and indirect answers, Kim said.

Moon, the former CEO of staple product maker Yuhan-Kimberly, detailed measures to cut taxes.

``If the nation prevents tax evasion like Finland and Sweden, we can gain financial profits worth more than seven trillion won annually,'' he said.

Chung gave details in a radio program about his visit to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea and its importance for the two Koreas' economic take-off, which was exclusively aired by Pandora TV.

Lee Myung-bak who gains the most support in most opinion polls has yet to join the question and answer session.

``Presidential candidates used to electioneer through television or radio but the advent of the public space Web 2.0 offers voters an opportunity to communicate with candidates directly,'' Richard Hwang, director of the marketing division at the company, said. ``This means UCCs will play a significant role in the presidential election.''

Will UCCs Turn the Tide?

Considering the potential impact on the presidential race, each presidential camp is busy coping with the UCC buzz.

The camp of leading candidate Lee has created and posted several clips in attempts to give off a friendly image to the public.

The Chung camp is operating a UCC channel on its official Web site, which provides updates of Chung's latest remarks. Supporters have also uploaded UCCs stating their support.

Will these UCCs turn the tide and bring victory to an unexpected figure just as Roh won the last presidential election? Some experts are skeptical.

Andy Jackson, who teaches American government at the Lakeland College bridge program at Ansan College, Gyeonggi Province, told The Korea Times that the political impact of UCCs is sometimes overstated because the political messages are mostly seen by their supporters.

``For example, fans of DLP candidate Kwon Young-gil will readily search out and download content about him but those who are not already supporters will not,'' he said.

Candidates and their supporters must struggle to get their UCCs seen by the general public, he added.

``The x-factor of the UCC is that there is no telling which uploads will be a hit with netizens,'' he said. ``The trick is to make content that is entertaining enough to draw attention from the general public but informative enough to make an impact on people's opinions.''

The other question is the impact of the Election Law on UCCs.

``Article 93 of the Public Official Election Act pretty clearly states that individuals are not allowed to distribute videos or other materials designed to influence an election,'' Jackson said.

People can talk to their friends and neighbors about the candidates but the issue for the National Election Commission (NEC) is whether communication via the Internet is public or private speech.

``It is a difficult line-drawing exercise that NEC officials must deal with in a fair and balanced manner,'' he said.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr