Parties to capitalize on social media

By Chung Min-uck

The Constitutional Court’s ruling Thursday on the use of social networking services (SNS) for election campaigns has prompted political parties to take full advantage of the new tool prior to the general and presidential elections this year.

The liberal side, which benefitted from social media in mobilizing young supporters, has recently announced a plan to select candidates in their 20s and 30s using networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Against this backdrop, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) has appointed 26-yearold Lee Jun-seok as the head of the subcommittee for online communication at the party’s emergency committee.

But questions linger over whether the parties are approaching the new tool effectively.

“The Constitutional Court’s decision will surely motivate political parties to mobilize their supporters through social media. But what’s important here is not how many or how frequently conservative or liberal party lawmakers use SNS.

Power tweeters are those who are wielding all the influence in SNS,” said Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Seoul’s Myongji University, Friday.

“The key is which party or candidate these power Twitter users support.” During the Seoul mayoral byelection in October, celebrity figures such as novelists Lee Oisoo and Kong Ji-young and singer Lee Eun-mi formed a socalled “mentor group” to support a unified candidate of the opposition camp.

Analysts say the declaration by celebrities in their Twitter updates played a key role in giving civic activist Park Wonsoon an easy victory in the byelection.

The members of the mentor group are known as power users of Twitter. The total number of followers of the members back then was estimated at about 1.5 million.

Lee Oi-soo, a renowned writer, alone currently has over 1 million followers ranking No.1 in the nation.

“Wooing voters through SNS is not something that can be done as part of an election strategy. I heard the GNP is trying to hire some SNS experts.

It’s totally nonsense. There is no expert in SNS,” said Shin.

The political scientist added that SNS is a tool of human emotion and therefore cultural entertainers should maintain their influence in the future.

In this regard, Prof. Shin remained skeptical about the GNP’s hiring of the young Harvard graduate Lee as its committee member.

“I believe putting Lee in charge of communication is a total mistake. He is not a proper representative of the local youth, given his stellar resume.

The GNP should have put up a young candidate that can at least represent 50 percent of the younger generation,” said Shin.