Abstract

At the candle rallies in April 2008 protesting against the import of U.S. beef under Korea-U.S. FTA, the participants paraded in the street with a candle in one hand and a camcorder or digital camera in the other hand. Using their mobile phones and laptop computers embedded with high-speed wireless Internet, citizens broadcast, live, the scene of the rally to Internet portal sites ‘Agora’ in ‘Daum’ and ‘afreeca.’

The rallies took place, not only in the streets, but also at ordinary households throughout the country. Netizens who joined the candle rallies took satellite photographs of the scenes through ‘Google Earth’, reported the deployment and
moving routes of police, and estimated the number of participants by counting candles in aerial photographs using pixel measuring software. Citizens gathered and reported news online using advanced technologies unimagined by established media companies and they also collected donations through the live Internet broadcasting of the candlelight rallies through ‘OhmyNews’ raising 100 million won (US$100,000) in eight days.

• Keum Sun Son The Global School of Media Department, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea

Full text (PDF)  p. 496-500