An increasing number of Internet users are redesigning their personal Web pages with black ribbons and flooding message boards with online tributes to express their grief over the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun.
/ Courtesy of SK Communications |
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The tragic death of former President Roh Moo-hyun has cyberspace drenched in black and gray.
Roh was a trailblazer in using the Web to get his message out and rally support in pulling off a surprise victory in the 2002 presidential elections, a strategy recently perfected by U.S. President Barack Obama. His use of the internet will undoubtedly be part of his legacy.
After arriving in Cheong Wa Dae, Roh doubled as the country's most famous blogger, often leaving columns and comments on government Web sites, which he saw as an effective tool for communicating with the public.
So it's hardly surprising that Internet users are showing a lot of emotion in mourning the death of a former president who they felt was approachable, if not always agreeable.
The country's biggest Web sites such as Naver (www.naver.com), Daum (www.daum.net) and Nate (www.nate.com) have redesigned their main pages with black and gray banners. Flags are flying low on blogs and social networking sites as well, with Internet users attaching black ribbons to their personal Web pages and writing obituaries, poems and even songs to express their grief.
There were around two million articles posted on message boards dedicated to Roh on major Web sites as of Thursday afternoon.
Naver, the country's most popular Web site, had nearly 900,000 posts on its message board, while Nate (www.nate.com) and sister site, Cyworld (www.cyworld.com), a widely popular social networking service, had more than 410,000 online tributes combined.
The mood was particularly intense in Daum, whose political debate services such as Agora (agora.media.daum.net) made it a hotbed for anti-government criticism, and thus a natural magnet for Roh supporters.
More than 182,000 articles were posted on Daum's special Web page for Roh, while more than 211,000 Internet users left comments on a separate tribute section on Agora. There were close to 9,000 postings dedicated to Roh on Daum's blogging platforms, including Tistory (www.tistory.com), company officials said.
Yahoo! Korea (www.yahoo.co.kr) and Paran (www.paran.com) each had about 20,000 postings on its message boards for Roh.
The tributes to Roh aren't limited to text, as there are an increasing number of user-generated video clips and songs circulating on the Web.
``There are a lot of text, video and music files about Roh that are being created by Internet users, and his past speeches and presidential campaign commercials are also popular content,'' said a spokesperson from SK Communications, which operates Nate and Cyworld.
According to Enswers (www.enswersinc.com), a Seoul-based Web technology firm, there were nearly 22,000 video clips about Roh posted in blogs and message boards of Thursday afternoon, a significant increase from the 13,000 videos from Monday.
The most popular videos include Roh's acceptance speech after he was nominated as the presidential candidate of the now-dissolved Millennium Democratic Party in 2002, and also a speech criticizing Japanese territorial claims for Dokdo in 2006, Enswers said.
The video clips also include an increasing number of songs written and sung by bloggers. The most popular song, ``We believe,'' has more than 834,000 hits, Enswers said.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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