CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION) AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL
PROCESS IN KOREA
SUBMITTED TO THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF AEJMC
IN 1998
DIVISION OF MASS COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY
WON, SOOK-YEONG
DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION,
DONG-AH UNIVERSITY
SEO-GU,DONGDAESHIN-DONG 3 GA, PUSAN, KOREA
E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]
YEO, EUN-HO
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION,
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, NY
TELEPHONE:(607)255-5359
E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]
LEE, BUM-SOO
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION,
DONG-AH UNIVERSITY
SEO-GU,DONGDAESHIN-DONG 3 GA, PUSAN, KOREA
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
Abstract
This study examines public participation in political process through CMPC
(computer mediated political communication)in Korea. The authors examine
political discussions from March to April, 1997, on two major on-line computer
networks that are the most popular in Korea. The results show that CMPC in Korea
is in its developing stage. Also, it is found that the public access to the
political forum established by political society tends to be difficult and
private information is often not secured. However, it was found that through
CMPC, gradually more information from political society is open to the civil
society and that information flow between political society and civil society is
improved.
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION) AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL
PROCESS IN KOREA
INTRODUCTION
The development of Computer Mediated Communication has brought a substantial
change in our society. The computer network, unlike other mass media, enables
the bi-directional communication process, or information flow, letting everybody
be a gatekeeper and direct communicator.
As the social system gets more complex and diverse, the amount of information
to exchange is increasing. The rapid diffusion of CMC and various types of
political communication occurring in the cyberspace not only reflects the change
of political process in Korea but also has the potential to establish a new
framework for political communication in Korean society by modifying the
relationship between political society and civil society[1]. This study seeks to
investigate various types of political communication on computer networks in
Korean society to gain an insight into the effects of CMPC on the political
processes of society. More specifically, this study tries to answer several
research questions:
<Research Question 1>
What is the political process on computer networks like?
<Research Question 2>
What effect does CMPC have on the information flow between
political society and civil society?
<Research Question 3>
What are the social, political meanings of the changes in the
political process through computer networks in Korean society?
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
MEDIA AND THE POLITICAL PROCESS
Usually mass media is considered as one of the most important medium for
political socialization of people, which means that mass media are not
producers of political affairs so much as channels for political communication.
In the process of political communication, usually government, politicians, or
political institutions play the major roles of controlling the information flow
in society (Ahn 1995, 39-41). Therefore, the development of the media usually
provokes some change in the forms of political communication in society.
The direct democracy in ancient Roman, Greek period is commonly viewed as the
beginning of political rhetoric. The face-to-face communication in Agora[2] in
those days gave rise to the study of political communication even though there
is a great difference in the political system between ancient Athens and modern
society (Won, J. 1995, 6).
The political communication in modern sense developed from the invention of
printing by Gutenberg. Before Gutenberg, political communication was mainly
owned and controlled by the political authorities. The invention of mass
printing enabled ordinary people to participate in the political process. Later,
the advent of the telegraph, radio, and television brought substantial change in
the forms of political processes in modern society. However, the information
revolution in the computer age has brought another fundamental change in
political process, bi-directional communication. In fact, earlier mass media,
such as the telegraph, radio, or television, only let people overcome
geographical limitations, while computer communication with its bi-directional
characteristic, has the potential to bring substantially new forms of political
process to society (Yu 1997). Thus, computer communication networks have become
an alternative media which can overcome the limitation of previous media by
introducing by-directional, mutually complementary communication systems, and
thus can lead the political process into a new era.
One of the essential tasks in the study of political processes is to analyze
the dynamics that are reflected in the polities such as individuals, interest
groups, and parties, etc. (Finer 1971, 26). Political processes can be divided
into ascending processes and descending processes.
Ascending processes refer to the process through which the public inform the
policy makers of their opinions while descending processes refer to the process
through which the policy makers or politicians advocate their policy to the
public. Here the mass media provide the channels and mediate the communication.
The role of mass media in the political process is 'advertising' and 'formation
of public opinion'. The role of mass media is critical for political
socialization as well as for the expression of opinions for interest groups.
Therefore, all the political functions of a political system cannot be
maintained without a certain communication channel that is mass mediated in
modern society (Lee, J. and others 1994). As computer networks are involved in
the political process, CMC becomes politicized (Won, W. 1996). CMC is
spotlighted as a new tool for political communication because it is relatively
cheap and guarantees the freedom of expression.
One of the most distinctive characteristics of the political process in terms
of mass media is that the media play a role of gatekeeper between political
society and civil society (Mark 1997). In the political process mediated by mass
media, people usually have difficulty getting direct information and depend
largely on the general image appearing in the mass media. Edelman (1964) defines
mass media-based polity as image-politics.
However, political communication through computer network is
bi-directional; therefore, more effective political participation is possible.
Also, the computer network has no distinctive gatekeeper. Rather, the media
activity is directly melted into the political process. The digitization of
political information enables citizens to express their opinions to other
citizens or politicians without the gatekeepers, as well as to access to
government executives who are in charge of a certain policy. As the role of mass
media weakens, the function and role of policy makers in political communication
weakens as well. Also, CMC enhances the ability of the public to access to
political information in diverse ways, as well as to gather, to search, and to
analyze political information. Overcoming the limitations of time and place in
political communication enhances the ability to analyze political situations and
to interact with one another in terms of political issues. This increases the
efficiency to react to political issues as well as to make accurate decisions
(Center of Korea Woman politics 1997).
As a result, CMC may be able to bring some democratization of the political
process by providing open channels for political communication. First of all,
the decision making process and other political information does not belong to a
few powerful groups in the society. Second, a reform of consciousness among
politicians is encouraged because the public knows their political actions
directly. Third, social solidarity is enhanced by direct participation of the
public by removing the possible distortion or delay in the opinion gathering
process and thus improving mutual understanding among the participants. Finally,
enhanced social solidarity and political participation increases the
representativeness and legitimacy of the political system.
In spite of all the positive potential of CMC for political processes, its
development can also have negative impact. Most of all, the inundation of
political information can build political indifference among people or decrease
the efficiency of the political process, which may results in mobocracy where
the mob becomes the ruling class.
THE POLITICAL COMMUNICATION ON COMPUER NETWORKS
1 CMPC Around the World
It was not long ago that the computer network was utilized in a regular
manner around world. Several years ago, when the "Tien-Min Demonstration"
occurred in China, the internet was one of the most important sources of
information, and international public opinion was galvanized through computer
networks. Then, many civil organizations across the world began to have interest
in the utilization of computer networks for their political movements. These
days, many civil organizations use computer networks to achieve international
cooperation as well as international support. On the other hand, the utilization
of computer networks by political society mainly focuses on election issues. To
obtain necessary support from the public, political society uses e-mail and
electronic conferences for gathering public opinion. In many western countries
where political systems are fairly stabilized, as well as in South Africa where
many ethnic groups are engaged in political struggles, political organizations
commonly use computer networks to obtain international support. Briefly, the
utilization of computer network for political purposes can be divided into two
types-- utilization directed by political society and utilization directed by
civil society. Political society directed utilization refers to computer network
use by political groups other than civil organizations, while civil society
directed utilization refers to computer network use by political groups
established by civil organizations.
Political society directed CMPC
In the 1990s, the U.S. fully utilized computer networks in the political
process. During the 1992 presidential election, President Bill Clinton, Vice
President Al Gore, and Ross Perrot brought up the concept of the 'Electronic
Town Hall' to interact with the public through computer networks. Since then,
computer networks have become an important arena for election campaigns
(Chollian 1995). In 1994, the governor and senators of Minnesota used electronic
bulletins and forums on computer networks to lead the public into direct
discussion on political issues (Kim, S.E. 1996). Also, a commercial service on
the internet, "E-mail Democracy"[3] gives people connection to the U.S.
president, First Lady, Vice President, 82 senators, and 180 congressmen. This
service lets people send e-mail directly to those "celebrities," as well as
connect to their home pages and "meet" them. The home page of White House
provides not only political advertising for the government but also a tremendous
amount of information. Particularly, the virtual library contains most of the
government documents, and people can search them by topics, years, and etc.
Also, there is a mailing list through which people can get government-related
documents by mail. Based on Vice President Gore's concept of 'Electronic
Government,' most of the government departments provide the public with direct
access through computer networks (Chosun Weekly, 1996). "In My Opinion," an on
line tax forum in Texas, holds a discussion for state tax laws among the public
and distributes the information to state legislators or other political
leaders[4]. The people in Palo Alto, CA, are conducting an important experiment,
"Sand Hill Road Project," which will give insight into the possibility of
on-line politics. This project, directed by Stanford University and approved by
the Palo Alto city congress, runs a virtual city hall where information flows
freely between the public and city hall. Particularly, the public can file a
petition through the network. In January of 1997, more than 10 petitions were
filed through the on-line project and were then processed directly by the city
committee. Also, residents can register to vote through e-mail, which
substantially simplifies the administration procedure. Above all, this project
reflects the possibility of more efficient participation of citizens in
political processes through computer networks.
Many countries other than the U.S. are also going through the experimental
stages of political communication through computer networks. In Canada, the
reformation party made a declaration named "Direct Democracy," which calls for
adapting more direct democracy to the present political process in Canada. The
main point of this declaration is that the public should have the right to fire
a congressman based on the negligence of duty. To realize this process, the
reformation party advocates mandating the electronic town hall. In Denmark, the
Danish Technological Council proposed a project that transforms the voting
procedure into an electronic format primarily to increase the voting rate in
Denmark. Also, in New Zealand, discussion on electronic democracy is increasing.
Recently, congressmen were considering whether to adapt electronic voting while
government constructed an electronic system through which the public could
express their opinions.[5]
Civil society directed CMPC
Political activities through computer networks among civil organizations
around the world usually tend to enlarge the scope of their connections to
national or international scales. The followings are some examples of the
radical civil organizations on the computer networks.
y CSPR(Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility)[6]
The purpose of CSPR is to provide the American public and policy makers with
evaluations of new information technology. Particularly, the members of CPSR are
eager to draw the public's attention to the effect of new information technology
on society and to encourage citizens to participate in the decision making
process. 'National Information Superhighway', 'Individual Freedom and Privacy',
'Computer and Workplace', 'The Danger and Reliability of Computer System', are
some of the topics CPSR addresses.
y EFF(Electronic Frontier Foundation)[7]
EFF is a pressure group on cyberspace established in 1991 for the purpose of
protecting civil rights. EFF has tried to encourage individual participation in
political process. This organization distributes 'EFFector Online', an
electronic newsletter, regularly for sharing information and seeking problem
solving processes among public. As their slogan reflects ("Click This Button to
Change the World"), the ultimate goal of this group is to represent the
interests of the public as well as to encourage the public's participation in
political processes.
y Lead or Leave[8]
Lead or Leave is a large political organization comprised of "Generation Xers"
that view political problems in the U.S. as conflicts between generations and
try to propose alternatives for solving these political problems. It was founded
in 1993 by Rob Nelson and John Cowan who advocated the political participation
among Generation X individuals. In a very short period, it became a huge group
comprised of more than 1 million members across all 50 states. However, this
organization recently dissolved for unknown reasons, even though it showed the
potential for computer mediated political communication.
y DSA(The Democratic Socialists of America)[9]
DSA is the biggest socialist organization in the U.S. and a U.S. branch of The
Socialist International. The members of DSA work for enhancing the position of
socialists in U.S. society, as well as for political change in U.S. society.
y JCA (Japan Computer Access)[10]
JCA is one of the biggest network civil movement organizations in Japan. It was
established in April, 1993, and has maintained a membership policy since July,
1995. As do other cyber political organizations in civil society, this
organization tries to experiment with various ways to computerize the political
process.
In addition to the cyber organizations mentioned above, lots of other small and
large civil organizations seek for political participation through computer
networks. All of these civil society directed organizations in computer networks
represent the growing potential of cyberspace for political communication.
2. CMPC in Korea
Although the utilization of computer networks in political processes is
gradually increasing, whether CMPC has fixed itself as an essential form of
political process in Korea remains controversial. It is certain, however, that
Korean society is undergoing a rapid computerization process. In the early
1980s, only about 50,000 personal computers were distributed. Now, the number of
personal computers distributed in Korean has exceeded 7 million. In the next
decade, more than 10 million personal computers are expected to be used in
Korea[11]. The increasing number of personal computers used in Korea reflects
the possibility of the transformation of the political process.
Computer networks were introduced in Korea in 1985 when DACOM began to
provide information useful for daily life through the post office. Later, the
number of people using commercial on-line networks increased so rapidly that
more than 2.7 million subscribed to one of the commercial on-line networks in
August, 1997 (see table 1).
The rapid growth of the computer networking population drew the attention
of politicians as well as of the government which began to make their own
political forums on computer networks.
-------------------------------------------------
Table 1 around here
-------------------------------------------------
The merit of computer networks for policy makers or politicians is that the
major users of computer network are young generations in their 20s or 30s.
According to Korean Gallop Research[12], 43% of computer network users are in
their 20s, followed by teens (29.2%) and thrty-somethings(18.8%), most of whom
are employees or college level students. Also, 63.9% of the users live in the
Seoul area (Seoul:47.7%, Incheon,Kyeongki: 16.2%) followed by Busan-Kyeongnam
area (11.1%). The rate is comparably low in other areas. In spite of the fact
that the distribution of computer users is highly skewed in terms of age and
residential area, policy makers' and politicians' participation in CMPC is
increasing because this new generation is regarded as a new force to shape the
future of the political process.
In Korea, the main arena for CMPC is not the internet but commercial
computer networks, mainly because commercial networks were introduced first in
Korea and also because the internet is not easily accessible for everybody.
Regardless of the type of networks, CMPC in Korea can be briefly divided into
two levels -- political society directed CMPC and civil society directed CMPC.
Through political society directed CMPC, the government or politicians tries to
enhance public participation. Congressmen or municipal governments establish
open forums on computer networks to gauge public opinion. On the other hand, in
civil society directed CMPC, through political education and open forums,
various civil organizations try to enhance public participation in the political
process.
Political society directed CMPC
Political society directed CMPC can be divided into government directed
type and party/politician directed type. Right after Young-Sam Kim was elected
president, many government offices and departments began to establish their
connections to computer networks. Now, 17 department and government offices have
their bulletin boards on commercial computer networks[13]. "Cheongwadae
Hanmadang (Blue House Forum)" maintained by Blue House not only advocates
government policy through "Kukjeong Hongboshil(Public Relation Office)" but also
gauge public opinion through "Yeoron Josashil(Public Opinion Office)" and
"Kukjeong Monitoringshil (Policy Monitoring Office)". However, the government
closed the "Free Bulletin Board" in 1994 when public complaints on government
policy dramatically increased due to several grand-scale accidents in which
hundreds of people died. On the other hand, in August, 1994, the Agency for
National Security Planning, which has been known for not permitting public
access, established a bulletin board on which more than 100 letters from the
public were posted within one month. "Yeolin Jeongboo (Open Government)" is run
by Gongbo-Cheo(The Bureau of Public Administration) and has "Jeongchaek
Toronshil (Policy Discussion Room)" which encourages public participation in the
policy making process.
The Congressionally run "Gukhoi Hanmadang (Congress Open Forum)" not only
provides the public various information about Congressional facilities but also
allows the public to participate in discussions through "Jayu Baleondae (Free
Opinion)" and "Toron Madang (Discussion Yard)." The police department also has
their bulletin board through which people can ask questions as well as read
about its activities or report crimes. Chongmoocheo (The Ministry of Government
Administration) has maintained its own network site since June, 1993. Through
its own network site, The Ministry of Government Administration operates a
public information system which provides the public various kinds of useful
information, such as civil activity, law, government documents, government news,
economic statistics and employment statistics.
Many local autonomous entities also run their own network sites. By April,
1997, 10 local entities including Seoul City operated their own network sites.
Party/politician directed cyber forums include "Jeonja Gukhoi (electronic
congress)", "Gasang Jeongdang (cyber party)", cyber forums run by political
parties, and cyber forums run by individual politicians. Most of these forums
appear on commercial networks. The "Jeonja Gukhoi" was established in June 1995
on CHOLLIAN and HITEL through the collaboration of several organizations from
various fields, including political, academic, and civil groups. This site
provides the public with general news about the congress and other political
information. Also, the bulletin board in "Jeonja Gukhoi (electronic congress)"
lets the public discuss government and congress. Gasang Jeongdang(cyber party)
was established in September 1996 on three commercial networks including HITEL,
CHOLLIAN, NAUNURI, and on the internet by the Society for Electronic Democracy
Research[14].
Minja[15] Forum, established during the 1992 election, was the first among
other party/politician directed bulletin boards. Since its inception during the
election campaign period, the bulletin board was filled with propaganda rather
than public opinion. This lead to a controversy over the legitimacy of election
campaigns on commercial networks. In addition, the "Con ID[16]" affair shows an
immature attitude among political groups in terms of the utilization of bulletin
boards in cyber space. Later, however, during a 1995 local election, some of the
candidates established their own sites on commercial networks and found find
that their political forums created very good reactions among voters. In the
1996 presidential election period, various types of political forums appeared
including more than 40 of them were arranged by individual politicians. Among
them, Polnet was the first political cyber forum established by civil research
organization. Polnet provided several sub-sites that were arranged according to
the discussion themes including general trends in Korean politics, online
political discussions, political celebrities, etc. This forum was different from
previous political forums on computer networks in that it provided a good
opportunity for direct communication between politicians and the public, which
is an important basis of direct democracy (Newsmaker, 1996). However, except for
a few exceptions, most of the political activities by government/politicians on
computer networks mainly focused on election related issues.
Civil society directed CMPC
Basically civil society directed democracy is based on the grassroots
information flow that is dominated by autonomous civil societies, such as the
field of economics. The role of government is primarily traffic control of the
complicated information flows, in efforts to maximize the utilization of the
creativity of civil society in the political process (Park, H. 1995, 162).
Generally, civil society directed CMPC can be divided into two types of
political activities on networks. One type is the political participation of
existing civil groups via computer networks. The other type is the establishment
of new political groups through computer networks (Cho, H. 1995). Thus CMPC not
only expands the existing political activities but also creates new patterns of
information flow for political information among civil society.
In Korea, civil society directed political activities on computer networks
began with the start of the new government in 1992 that advocated civil activity
based political processes. On KETEL[17] and CHOLLIAN, several political groups
were formed by college students, and that initiated civil group directed
political activities on computer networks. However, the fledgling CMPC civil
groups seem to have failed to fully utilize the potential of CMPC. Their
activities were mainly propaganda instead of interactive discussion, reflecting
the popular pattern of civil movement during the 80s. Nevertheless, their
activities on CMPC revealed the potential of computer networks in the political
process and encouraged a subsequent influx of civil groups in computer networks
for political activities.
'Bareun Tongshin Moim (Society for Fair Communication)', 'Hyundai Cholhak
Donghohoi (Modern Philosophy Club)', 'Himangteo (Hope Spot)', and 'Jinbo
Cheongnyeon Tongshin Dongwoohoi (Radical Young Mens' Club for Fair
Communication)' are among the most famous original groups. The first group
opened on HITEL, while the second and the third opened on CHOLLIAN, and the last
opened on NAUNURI. Bareun Tongshin Moim was created by 10 high school students
in 1991 and put its own collection of voting results from the 1992 presidential
campaign as a way to supervise the election and ensure its fairness. In addition
to that, this group provides humanistic services, such as opening a prompt news
bulletin during the Sampung situation[18]. Hyendai Cholhak Dongwoohoi was
established in September, 1993, and became involved in a CMC oppression case[19]
which drew the attention of the public. Jinbo Cheongnyeon Tongshin Dongwoohoi,
most of whose members are in their 30s, advocates the realization of direct
democracy through computer networks. Also, a couple of civil political groups
have appeared on the internet, such as SING[20] and Tongshin Youndai (Joint
Association Through Communication)[21]. One interesting thing is that these
cyber groups tend to converge in one big independent network. The independent
network movement among these groups[22] encouraged the establishment of the
Korean Association of Civil Communication Network(KACC), which tries to build
strong connections among citizens and provide a cyberspace for it. KACC also
tries to make connections with international NGO network (Kim, H. 1997).
On the other hand, many existing civil political organizations entered
computer networks in order to expand their influence on people. Many civil
organizations, including Kyeongje Jeongeui Shilcheon Shimin Yeonhap, Kidokyo
Yully Shilcheon Undong, Nara Jeongchak Yeonkoohoi, Nodong Inkweon Hoikwan,
Hankuk Yeoseong Jeongchi Yeonkuso, Hwankyeong Undong Yeonhap, Heungsadan, and
others joined in Yeollin Jeongchak Hoeui (Open Policy Meeting), which was
established in HITEL. Some of the organizations mentioned above have their
independent forums on other networks, such as CHOLLIAN and NAUNURI. On NAUNURI,
several civil organizations, such as 21-Seki Frontier (21Century Frontier),
Korean Christian Academy and others, are mainly targeting young citizens for
expanding their influence. These organizations not only publish newsletters but
also conduct open political forums to encourage citizen participation in the
discussion on political issues. In CHOLLIAN, Green Scout, Kongseonhyup,
Shinmunlo Forum, Young Congress and other similar organizations are developing
political processes on computer networks.
In addition to the bulletin boards created by political organizations,
hundreds of opinions about political issues appear everyday on general
discussion bulletins, such as Keunmaul in HITEL, Nado Hanmadi in CHOLLIAN, and
Yeoron Kwangjang in NAUNURI. These general discussion bulletin boards also
reflect the potential of CMC in the political process.
CMPC AND THE POLITICAL PROCESSES IN KOREA
To study the political process on computer networks in Korea, we selected
two of the most popular commercial computer networks in Korea, CHOLLIAN and
HITEL. Although there are several other networks, we excluded them from
observation because they are not as popular. Specifically, we examined the
political discussions that appeared from public institutions, party/politicians,
civil organizations, political clubs, and general open bulletin boards on two
major computer networks in Korea.
The data was collected during March and April in 1997 through daily
observations. For the sake of analysis, we divided CMPC into four types. The
first two types, government directed CMPC (Type 1) and party/politician directed
CMPC (Type 2) represent political society directed CMPC. The last two types,
civil organization directed CMPC (Type 3) and individual citizen CMPC (Type 4)
represent civil society directed CMPC. Data for type 1 were collected through
political forums maintained by the government offices, while data for type 2
were collected through political forums opened by parties or politicians. Data
for type 3 were collected through the political forums established by civil
organizations. Since the first three types of CMPC occurred in specifically
organized forums, we compared the three by (1)services provided, (2)number of
people participating in the discussion, and (3)frequency of visiting bulletin
board. On the other hand, type 4 of CMPC occurred on general open bulletin
boards, which usually contain 3-4 times as many discussions as other types of
CMPC. We analyzed type 4 separately to see how many political opinions appear on
the general open bulletin boards compared to opinions on other issues. Since
general bulletin boards contain 3-4 times as much information as other political
forums, data gathering for type 4 was conducted only during April 1997.
Some forums, such as electronic congress and cyber party, were excluded
from analysis partly because no particular force directs these forums, which may
confuse the analysis.
1. CMPC Services
Table 2 shows the comparison among the first three types of CMPC in terms
of the services they provide.
The results show that more than half of the total services provided in the
forums are filled by the PR information service (37%), or Political information
service (26%), followed by bulletin boards (15%), and e-mail (8%). Few forums
provide a real-time discussion service or chat room (2%). Also small group
organizing appears most on civil organization directed forums (11% compared to
0% for type 1 and 0.7% for type 2).
--------------------------------------------------
Table 2 around Here
--------------------------------------------------
Government directed CMPC puts more emphasis on PR (37%) and on the
political information service (38%) than on bi-directional discussion services,
such as thematic discussions (3%), or bulletin boards (12%). Party/politician
directed CMPC has a great emphasis on PR (44%) and contains a relatively small
portion of the political information service, which reflects the fact that
politicians are beginning to realize the potential of computer networks for
political campaigns. Also, a moderate degree of small group organizing takes
place (7%), which reflects the development of small groups mainly based on their
computer communication. In civil organization directed forums, the distribution
of various services are relatively balanced. Particularly, these forums provide
a relatively greater number of bi-directional communication services such as
thematic discussions (8%), bulletin boards (20%), and chat rooms (4%).
2. Utilization of Thematic Bulletin Boards
Table 3 shows the comparison among the first three types of CMPC in terms
of the number of statements on the thematic bulletin boards as well as
frequencies of visiting those bulletin boards.
--------------------------------------------------
Table 3 around Here
----------------------------------------------
Generally, public participation in bi-directional discussion appears to be
low. In type 1 and type 2, only 0.03 and 0.05 statements per day were written on
the bulletin boards, respectively. Visiting frequencies were fairly low for type
1 and 2 CMPC (0.5 per day and 0.1 per day, respectively). Also, in type 1 and
type 2, a large portion of bulletin boards did not have any specific topic to
discuss (50% and 40%, respectively). Generally, giving a specific topic of
discussion encourages the submission of thematic statements. The absence of
topics on thematic bulletin boards seems to reflect the indifference of
government or party/politician toward bi-directional discussions. However, in
type 3 CMPC, relatively many statements are submitted to the bulletin boards
(0.5 per day) and visiting frequency was relatively high (39 per day). Also,
only one out of ten bulletin boards did not have specific topics of discussion.
Analysis of type 4 CMPC on thematic bulletin boards that do not belong to
any organization directed forum show that people generally are interested in
social (41 bulletin boards, 6664 participants) and political (20 bulletin
boards, 4451 participants) issues. Also, people seemed interested in educational
(8 bulletin boards, 2312 participants) and other (14 bulletin boards, 3044
participants) issues. The reason why people are moderately interested in
education and other[23] issues seems to be that many of the computer users are
teenagers who are interested their school work, as well as sports and media
celebrities.
3. Utilization of General Bulletin Boards
The utilization of general bulletin boards in all 4 types of CMPC was
higher than for other services. In fact by their nature, general bulletin boards
allow people to express their opinions in a broader manner than thematic
bulletin boards. Table 4 shows the comparison of the utilization of general
bulletin boards among type 1, 2, and 3 CMPCs.
---------------------------------------------------
Table 4 around here
---------------------------------------------------
For type 1 and 2, the number of statements submitted on the bulletin boards
are fairly small (0.4 per day, 0.6 per day, respectively), compared to those for
type 3 (3 per day). The frequencies of average visiting per day were 13 for type
1, 21 for type 2, and 1462 for type 3. The difference in the frequencies of
average visiting implies that general computer network users are more interested
in the opinions stated on the bulletin boards in type 3 CMPC than in type 1 or
2.
Table 5 shows the analysis of type 4 CMPC on general bulletin boards. Again
it was found that people had great interest in political (112 statements per
day, 17466 visits per day), and social (77 statements per day, 12237 visits per
day)issues. The total number of statements and visits is much larger than that
in other types of CMPCs.
-------------------------------------------------
Table 5 around Here
-------------------------------------------------
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
Overall, CMPC in Korea seems to be in its developing stage. Observations on
each type of CMPC revealed that one-directional PR, or political advertising,
comprised the greater portion of CMPC. Some government or party directed forums
denied access to those who did not reveal their identification, which seemed to
discourage public participation in creative discussions.
Politician directed CMPC contained a lot of PR service information, and
they frequently closed. This may reflect that politicians still regard CMPC only
as a source for political campaigning and that CMPC is not considered a major
track of the political process.
Relatively vivid participation seemed to occur in type 3 CMPC, which
reflects the fact that civil organizations are one of the frontiers that try to
develop CMC as a basic political process.
In type 1 and 2 CMPC, many forums are without bi-directional discussion
rooms and the participation rate is fairly low compared to type 3 and type 4.
The number of visits to forums in type 1 and 2 are much lower than that in type
3 or type 4, which implies that political society is passive in developing
bi-directional CMC as a regular political process. Nevertheless, it is not
impossible for the public to participate actively in the political process
through existing services provided by the government or politicians. Also, the
amount of political information provided by the government or politicians
through computer networks is much larger than that provided by other mass media,
which again implies that CMC has the potential to widen the information flow
between political society and civil society.
The high rate of participation in general bulletin board discussions in
type 4 CMPC clearly shows that computer networks can be very useful for the
realization of individual power in politics. Therefore, CMPC can be regarded as
an important factor for broadening political participation, which can overcome
the domination of one-directional political information flow.
Another interesting phenomenon is establishing small groups through
computer networks in type 2 and 3 CMPC. Generally, the support groups for
politicians were not openly organized, and the political activities of
politicians were not well communicated to the public. Organizing support groups
in the open space can make the political process more open to the public. On the
other hand, the small groups organized through type 3 CMPC play an important
role in analyzing complicated data and revealing it to the public. That can
substantially enhance the degree of sharing of information between political
society and civil society.
Many cases around the world reveal that computer networks can enhance
public participation in political processes, which in turn can democratize the
existing political systems. Even though computer networks are not fully utilized
in political processes in Korea, it is clear that the public has interest in
CMPC as a new tool to develop political process and that CMC does have that
potential.
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
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CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
List of Tables
Table 1. Subscribers on Commercial Computer Networks
Table 2. Political Forums on Computer Networks
Table 3. Participation in Thematic Bulletin Board
Table 4. Participation in Thematic Bulletin Boards in Type 4 CMPC
(Topic by Network)
Table 5. Participation in General Bulletin Board Discussion
Table 6. Participation in General Bulletin Board Discussion for Type 4
CMPC
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
Table 1. Number of Subscribers for Commercial Networks
CHOLLIAN
HITEL
NAUNURI
UNITEL
TOTAL
FEB.1996
403,869
248,000
128,000
128,000
1,009,869
AUG.1997
742,943
882,025
533,354
463,223
2,621,545
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
Table 2. Political Forums on Computer Networks
Type of CMPC
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Total
N of Forums
46
28
8
82
Total services
A
B
%
A
B
%
A
B
%
A
B
%
585
12.7
100
274
9.8
100
137
17.1
100
996
12.2
100
PR
217
4.7
37
121
2.3
44
34
4.3
25
372
4.5
37
Political Info.
222
4.8
38
31
1.1
12
31
3.9
23
284
3.5
26
Thematic Discussion
19
0.4
3
15
0.5
5
11
1.4
8
45
0.5
5
General Bulletin Board
68
1.5
12
50
1.8
18
27
3.4
20
145
1.9
115
E-Mail
47
1
8
23
0.8
8
7
0.9
5
77
0.9
8
Chatting Room
2
0.04
0.3
7
0.3
3
6
0.8
1
15
0.2
2
Small Group
0
0
0
19
0.7
1
15
1.9
11
34
0.4
4
Others
10
0.2
2
8
0.3
3
6
0.8
4
24
0.3
3
A: N of Services
B: Average Number of Services Per Forum
c: % of a service among total services
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
Table 3. Participation in Thematic Bulletin Boards
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Total
N of forum
18
10
8
36
A
B
C
A
B
C
A
B
C
A
B
C
N of Participation
34
18
0.03
11
3
0.05
253
32
0.5
298
8.3
0.13
N of visits
593
329
0.5
157
6.3
0.1
18814
2352
39
19564
543
8.9
Absence of Theme
9
4
1
14
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
Table 4. Thematic Bulletin Boards in Type 4 CMPC (Topic by Network)
Political
Social
Economic
Educational
Cultural
Others
Total
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
HITEL
7
(15%)
1536
(19%)
27
(56%)
4100
(52%)
1
(2%)
23
(1%)
3
(6%)
985
(12%)
1
(2%)
237
(3%)
9
(19%)
1001
(13%)
48
(100%)
7882
(100%)
CHOLLIAN
13
(32%)
2915
(30%)
14
(32%)
2564
(27%)
1
(3%)
214
(3%)
5
(12%)
1336
(14%)
3
(7%)
506
(5%)
5
(12%)
2043
(21%)
41
(100%)
9578
(100%)
TOTAL
20
(23%)
4451
(25%)
41
(46%)
6664
(38%)
2
(2%)
237
(2%)
8
(9%)
2321
(13%)
4
(5%)
743
(5%)
14
(15%)
3044
(17%)
89
(100%)
17460
(100%)
A: Number of Thematic Bulletin Boards
B: Number of Participants
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
Table 5. Participation in General Bulletin Board Discussion
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Total
Forums
37
25
8
70
A
B
C
A
B
C
A
B
C
A
B
C
Participation
823
22
0.4
882
35
0.6
1272
159
3
2977
43
0.7
Visits
28604
773
13
31934
1277
21
713702
89212
1462
774240
11060
181
A: Overall frequency
B: Average frequency per forum
C: Average frequency per day for a forum
CMPC (COMPUTER MEDIATED POLITICAL COMMUNICATION)
AND ITS IMPACT ON THE POLITICAL PROCESS IN KOREA
Table 6. Participation in General Bulletin Boards of Type 4 CMPC (Topic by
Network)
Political
Issues
Social
Issues
Communication Issues
Educational
Issues
Cultural
Issues
Other
Issues
Total
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B
HITEL
70
35%
10626
36%
46
23%
7520
25%
34
17%
4672
16%
20
10%
2468
9%
16
8%
1670
6%
14
7%
1678
6%
200
100%
29631
100%
CHOLLIAN
42
31%
6840
29%
26
19%
4717
20%
26
19%
4717
20%
18
13%
3538
15%
15
10%
1651
7%
5
4%
472
2%
137
100%
23585
100%
TOTAL
112
33%
17466
34%
77
23%
12237
24%
77
23%
9389
18%
38
11%
6006
11%
31
9%
4321
8%
19
6%
2150
5%
337
100%
53216
100%
A: Number of participation per day
B: Number of visits per day
[1] Political process refers to the all kinds of interactions among
individuals, groups, government, and politicians for the purpose of having
influence on the process of decision and implementation of policy(Bertram 1980,
265).
[2] Agora can be translated into plaza. The citizens in ancient Athens spent
most of their time in Agora discussing politics and ideology. Every citizen had
right to participate in the discussion and the policy was decided based on the
vote of the citizens. Agora, in which every citizen could speak freely, was the
center of politics as well as daily lives. The politics in Agora is considered
as the beginning point of democracy and has been considered as an ideal model of
democracy. Many people think the cyberspace render an opportunity to bring the
political discussion to 'Agora politics' (Agora Politics -- Bi-directional
democracy, Electronic Newspaper, January 11, 1996)
[3] http://enterpreneurs.net/solutions/emaildem.html
[4] http://www.window.stste.tx.usl
[5] See http://www.duc.auburn.edu/~tann/
[6] http://www.cpsr.org/dox/home.html/
[7] http://www.eff.org/
[8] http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/lead.html/
[9] http://ccme-mac4.bsd.uchicago.edu/DSA.html/
[10] http://www.jca.or.jp
[11] Data from Ministry of Information and Communication Republic of Korea ,
August,1997.
[12] From August 9 to 14, 1996, Korean Gallop Research conducted a survey among
1,000 people who are older than 13 and have personal computers. The result was
reported Chung-Ahng Daily October 17, 1996.
[13] This includes Blue House and other 5 government departments,
[14] SEDR was established by 13 congressmen and other opinion leaders in
various field of Korean society in July, 1996. The plan was initially proposed
by Kyeongshik Kang, a congressman. The goals of this organization is (1)
Development of policy through hearings on cyberspace (2) Research on the opinion
collecting system (3) Research for effective system for administrative process
in terms of public matters
[15] Minja is the name of administration party at that time.
[16] On November 23, 1992, a bulk of messages of similar content were put on a
most popular bulletin board in HITEL, one of the commercial networks. All the
messages were strong propaganda for a certain presidential candidate and written
by people who were using four bogus names. One of the network users traced their
identification to find out they were bogus. HITEL was highly criticized for
giving password to bogus names.
[17] Later, it became HITEL
[18] In 1995, Sampung building, one of the biggist department stores in Seoul,
collapsed due to poor construction. Hundreds of people died in this accident.
[19] 3 members were apprehended for violating the National Security Law by
putting their opinion on the bulletin board. One of them has been released. This
incidence caused many radical groups on computer network to tie together for a
movement for freedom of speech on the computer network.
[20] http://power1.snu.ac.kr:8080/
[21] A joint association of several radical civil movement associations on
computer network. Many existing groups joined in this group. It opened in
September , 1995 and has been involved in many political movements.
[22] This movement is similar to independent media movement which tried to
establish an infrastructure for civil political movement
[23] "Other" thematic bulletin boards usually involved discussion on sports, or
celebrity news.
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