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DE RUEHUL #0604/01 0610833
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 020833Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY SEOUL
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RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
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RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA J2 SEOUL KOR
RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA J5 SEOUL KOR
RHMFISS/COMUSKOREA SCJS SEOUL KOR
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC//OSD/ISA/EAP//

UNCLAS SEOUL 000604 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KS
SUBJECT: USER CREATED CONTENT (UCC) - THE NEXT BIG 
POLITICAL TOOL? 
 
¶1.  Summary.  User-created content (UCC), digital information 
produced and posted by Internet users, is poised to play a 
major role in Korea's upcoming presidential election. 
Candidates are jockeying for prime Internet channels from 
which to project carefully crafted images to mass audiences, 
and are cultivating full-time media personas to guard against 
well-publicized missteps.  That election players are taking 
UCC seriously this election is evidenced by the struggle of 
law enforcement and regulatory agencies to define the 
parameters of UCC use in campaigns.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  Online digital information created by Internet users, 
dubbed user-created content (UCC), is expected to factor 
heavily in Korea's upcoming presidential elections. 
Widespread availability and use of digital equipment, 
combined with increasing reliance on Internet-based sources 
for news, has spawned a new "Internet populism."  Many of 
Korea's estimated 33.58 million Internet users increasingly 
turn to Internet TV - available on phones, TVs, subways and 
computers - for mainstream news.  The gap between average TV 
and Internet use per day (2 hours, 12 minutes for TV; 1 hour, 
44 minutes for Internet) is narrowing, and Korean viewership 
of primetime news is declining. 
 
¶3.  Companies like Pandora TV, the most popular 
video-streaming UCC site in Korea, are jockeying for pieces 
of the election's virtual real estate.  Dubbed Korea's 
YouTube, Pandora TV recently auctioned Internet video 
channels to candidates anxious to launch virtual campaigns in 
the run-up to the 2007 elections.  Presidential candidate 
Chung Dong-young of the ruling Uri party beat out four other 
candidates to land exclusive rights to the much-coveted 
channel 2007.  The Blue House took 1219 (the date of the 
election) in 2006 so no candidate could have this channel. 
The portal's large audience - two million paying subscribers 
and approximately 3.3 million daily viewers - and ability to 
track what subscribers watch by age, gender, and region, 
render it a fertile platform for next-generation campaigning. 
 
¶4.  Presidential candidates, hoping to capitalize on UCC's 
popularity, are launching their own video channels and hiring 
web consultants to project desirable images.  Richard Hwang, 
responsible for the portal's political content, told poloff 
all 14 presidential hopefuls have approached Pandora TV about 
using its technology as a campaign tool.  In addition, each 
of the GNP's "Big Three" presidential hopefuls - Lee 
Myung-bak, Park Geun-hye, and Sohn Hak-kyu - has posted UCC 
clips on their personal homepage.  Park Gyun-hye's homepage, 
for example, features a graceful video clip of her playing 
piano entitled "Piano Playing Princess Geun-hye." 
 
¶5.  Because of the UCC's broad audience and accessibility, 
postings can also damage a candidate's chances. "All it takes 
is one video to create political momentum - good or bad," 
Pandora TV's CFO Mike Hong told poloff.  Offhand comments or 
acts caught by netizens with cell phones and a small degree 
of technological savvy can balloon into well-publicized 
gaffes with the potential to derail the best-planned 
campaign.  In the runup to the 2004 National Assembly, then 
Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young suffered a serious 
set-back that still affects him today when his disparaging 
remark about senior citizens was caught in digital form and 
posted online by a netizen.  The widely-viewed blunder 
created a public uproar and led to Chung's resignation. 
 
¶6.  With UCC-based campaigning emerging as a key variable in 
the upcoming election, regulatory and law enforcement 
agencies are struggling to define the parameters of 
acceptable UCC use.  The National Election Commission's 
vacillating UCC guidelines reflect the difficulty in 
regulating this new, largely unfettered media, and serve as 
tacit acknowledgement of the UCC's potential power this 
election year.  The Commission announced broad guidelines 
prohibiting voters from creating election-related UCC before 
the official campaign period - which begins 23 days before 
the December 19 election - and reversed course three weeks 
later following a barrage of criticism from Internet users 
concerned that too much regulation could drive away younger 
voters. 
 
¶7.  The Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office announced on 
February 21 plans to establish a "UCC Monitoring Office" and 
"Digital Investigation Team," consisting of 20 prosecutors 
and investigators, to police online campaign abuses.  The 
Korean National Police Agency already monitors illicit UCC 
campaign activities through its Cyber Counter-Terrorism 
Center. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶8.  In 2002, the presidential elections were affected by 
instant messaging and the internet, and 2007 will likely see 
UCC take a prominent position in the campaign.  Just 20 years 
after democratization, Korea now is at the cutting edge of 
democracy, developing new ways for more people to participate 
in the political process. 
VERSHBOW