Wireless Protesters Move Around: Informational and Coordinative Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Protest Politics

Abstract

This study explored information and communication technology (ICT) uses for protest politics, focusing on the case of a 2008 protest in Korea. Based on a survey of citizen activists (N = 322), it examined informational and coordinative uses of eight different ICTs for protest participation.The results indicated that heavy, moderate, and nonprotesters were differentiated, particularly regarding the use of Web sites of social movement organizations (SMOs), mobile phone, and e-mail. Across all types of protesters, the portal site was the most prominently utilized tool, while online micromedia showed little contribution. The findings call for the reconsideration of the waning role of SMOs in contemporary protest politics, and the differentiation of the public-oriented ICT from the private use of ICT regarding its contribution to expand civil society.

Swearing Effects on Citizen-to-Citizen Commenting Online

“…Thanks to the high penetration of broadband nationwide and the diversification of political discussion platforms that complement conservative traditional media off-line, the Internet has become an essential means for citizens to share and express their opinions. In the past decades, South Korean online publics have shown the spillover of online discursive participation into off-line political processes including its impacts on presidential elections and policy reforms (Woo-Young, 2005) and large-scale protest mobilizations (Kwon, Nam, & Lackaff, 2011).…”

Social Media for Political Campaigns: An Examination of Trump’s and Clinton’s Frame Building and Its Effect on Audience Engagement

“…Audience engagement refers to the level of user participation and interactivity in real time on social media platforms (Lim, Hwang, Kim, & Biocca, 2015;Seo, Harn, Ebrahim, & Aldana, 2016). Social media are known to enhance civic and political participation (Kim, Hsu, & de Zúñiga, 2013) and facilitate collective actions (Kwon, Nam, & Lackaff, 2011) and collective sensemaking (Oh, Kwon, & Rao, 2010). Highly engaging messages are more effective in propagating information to a wider scope of users.…”

Can web ecology provide a clearer understanding of people’s information behavior during election campaigns?

“…Fourth, before the election campaigns began, the media had already placed Twitter in the spotlight, speculating that it would be a revolutionary tool for connecting politicians and voters directly. Its successful utilization is often associated with boosting community spirit, increasing civic and political engagement, and ultimately contributing to the expansion of democracy, coerced neither by state nor by market forces (Kwon, Nam & Lackaff, 2011). The present study supports, to a certain degree, this association, since the perceived importance of Twitter in civic engagement located the habitus of Twitter as a central public sphere in Korean politics on this occasion.…”

“…However, Lee was faced with severe public opposition just a few months into his term (Cho, Choi & Park, 2012; Kwon, Nam & Lackaff, 2011). A wave of mass candlelight protests broke out on 2 May 2008 against the ‘Washington Consensus’ over the American beef imports deal he had sealed in April.…”

“…It is believed that e-campaign practices in South Korea have always provided useful data for global comparison, as the country was one of the earliest adopters of information technology (Hsu & Park, 2011; Kwon, Nam & Lackaff, 2011; Nam & Barnett, 2010). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that 95% of households have broadband access as of 2010 (OECD, 2010).…”