Presidential Candidates Should Be Careful of UCC

Every presidential candidate has picked UCC, which is video uploaded by the Internet users as a factor in the upcoming election. Even though an influence of the Internet has been weaker than 2002, a provocative video can overwhelm writings and pictures.

If someone takes a candid shot of a presidential candidate and catches a mistake by him or her, UCC can be used as a tool for a negative campaign. If he or she is caught in a video, there is no way out.

In the U.S., two senators were defeated in a mid-term election last November due to UCC. A video of Conrad Burns, a former United States Senator from Montana, dozing off at a public bill hearing aired on YouTube, which is a video sharing website and George Allen, then Virginia senator, also appeared on YouTube as a racist.

Most UCCs that are distributed in Korea regarding presidential candidates are mostly made by fan clubs for candidates or election camps. Accordingly, those UCCs focus on advertising their supporting candidates rather than attacking opposite candidates.

A hilariously edited video clip named ‘Myungbbaki’ made when former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak applied lotion on his face, and former representative of Grand National Party Park Geun-hye playing piano, are good examples.

There has been no big UCC that could affect the election. But still concerned about high rate of the Internet access and voters’ interest in the upcoming presidential election, it can do more than it did in the U.S., an official from a presidential candidate camp said.

Former chairman for the Uri Party Chung Dong-young was having a hard time because a video containing his controversial remarks about old people was spread prior to a general election in 2004. The video affected the result of the election. Park Gye-dong, GNP legislative candidate, was also in trouble after a video that he was accompanied by a woman at a drinking session prior to the 5.31 local election last year.

If a video is spread through a foreign site prior to the presidential election, it is essentially impossible to delete the video. The number of users and the influencing power of popular foreign video sites including YouTube are appraised going beyond Korean ones, and it is not difficult to find a UCC made by Korean users on YouTube.

However, it is quite impossible to identify people who upload a video on a foreign site by receiving information from the manager of the site.

tesomiom@donga.com