South Korea’s 2007 presidential election

Understanding elections by the use of a mixed Webometric method: a case study of South Korea’s 2007 presidential election Han Woo Park YeungNam University, South Korea Yeon-Ok Lee Royal Holloway, University of London, UK AoIR annual conference 16-18 Oct 2008, Copenhagen Elections Online

Background
A liberal underdog Roh Moo-Hyun won the 2002 presidential election by 2.3% of the votes.
Ward, A. ‘Netizens’ wooed in S Korea poll. Financial Times , 17 Dec 2002.
South Korea clicks for votes. CNN , 18 Dec 2002.
York, G. In South Korea, it’s the mouse that roars. globeandmail.com , 30 Dec 2002.
Watts, J. World’s first internet president logs on. The Guardian , 24 Feb 2003.

Research Objectives
To see whether a similar scenario would unfold in the 2007 election (and if not, why is that the case?)
To ‘test out’ new research methods for exploring e-campaign practices

Theoretical Framework
Equalisation or normalisation?
Wider mobilisation or reinforcement?
Typology of campaign Websites: informing, involving, connecting, mobilising (Kluver et al., 2007).
The role of contextual factors in (the evolution of) e-campaigning.

Methodology
Webometrics
The respective sizes of the 20 official Websites of the candidates/parties.
Frequency counts in search engine indexes
Incoming links
Web traffic
Co-link analysis: LexiURL
Qualitative complements

Summary of findings
Online attention also focused on major parties/candidates
cf. Moon GH, Huh KY
Frequency counts, Web traffic:
the (conservative) GNP > the liberals
Incoming links, size of the site:
the liberals & labour candidates > the GNP

Frequency counts (party)

Frequency counts (candidate)

cf. Freq. counts (minor candidate)

Incoming links (party)

Incoming links (candidate)

Website traffic (Raw data from Internetmetrix.com )

Size of the site (party) (i.e. Number of Webpages including all subdomains)

Size of the site (candidate)

Summary of findings (2)
Colink maps = indicative of the relative level of public awareness and the ideological orientation of candidates
cf. Single incoming links = symbolic affiliation

Colink network (29 Nov)

Colink network (2 Dec)

Conclusion
No significant effect of online campaigning: the offline atmosphere reproduced in cyberspace
No e-campaign innovations
Contextual factors mattered
The worsening economy
Legal frameworks
The ‘animosity’ towards the outgoing government
Political disenchantment of the newly eligible

Han Woo Park, PhD
Assistant Professor
Dept of Communication & Information
YeungNam University, South Korea
Email: hanpark@ynu.ac.kr
http://www.hanpark.net
Yeon-Ok Lee
PhD Researcher
New Political Communication Unit
Dept of Politics & International Relations
Royal Holloway, University of London
Email: yenn.lee@rhul.ac.uk
http://www.yawningtree.net
* Many thanks to the members of the New Media & Society Lab at YeungNam University for their help during data collection.

Thank You !

South Korea’s 2007 presidential election

by Han Woo PARK on Oct 27, 2008

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South Korea’s 2007 presidential election — Presentation Transcript