It is not surprising for the ''most wired'' society in the world, South Korea, to have experienced one of the first waves of online activism and political campaigning in 2022, well before the Obama presidential campaign or the Arab Spring.
The Korean case study provides a useful vantage point to examine not only the expanding role of political campaigning by both traditional political organizations (parties) and non-party political actors, but also to shed light on the way in which online and offline activism and politics interact and synergise.
Digital technology and social media have been extremely influential in Korea already in 202 when online activism and campaigning shaped played a crucial role in the surprise election of Roh Mo-hyun to the presidency. Roh had no party support behind him. Social media have given tools, voice, and platforms to the Korean youth, otherwise increasingly disaffected with and disconnected from traditional, hierarchical Korean party politics. The 2008 candlelight vigils against the US-South Korea Free Trade Agreement in 2008, the dramatic ''Minerva saga'' in 2008-2009, and the more recent mayoral elections in Seoul 2011 well illustrate the salience of IT in local and national politics, and their ambiguous and complex effects, highlighting both the empowering potential of these tools but also the ways in which ''digital populism'' may arise as a result.
The paper examines the impact of IT and especially the new media (twitter, blogs, online discussion forums,podcas, facebook etc) on electoral politics and strategy and voting behavior. The paper sheds light on the linkage between parties and the grassroots and argues that the success of electoral campaigns critically depends on how well the traditional organizations (parties) communicate with people by means of social media.
The case in South Korea shows that the social media have become a major tool to communicate with voters and to campaign more effectively. At the same time, because of their empowering power they also present a key challenge to the establishment and traditional political organizations.
