Political Hyperlinking in South Korea: Technical Indicators of Ideology and Content

As the Internet has become a more important source of information for citizens and consumers, politicians in a number of nations have employed the Web as a tool to facilitate contact with constituents and supporters. One of the least understood phenomena in the new ecology of political communication, however, is the use of hyperlinks to build public recognition, to demarcate ideological spaces and to reflect political alliances. The purpose of this paper is to examine the political hyperlinks established by the National Assembly members in South Korea, in order to ascertain their functions. This paper examines the communicative agendas of politicians as represented by their (out)linking practices. Hyperlink data obtained from the homepages of South Korea's National Assembly members during June of 2003 was collected. A hyperlink network analysis revealed that outlinks to political parties were the most common type of link. The next most preferred target websites were those maintained by the National Assembly, local governments such as city hall, and central government bodies, including Ministries. Websites rarely hyperlinked to civic and advocacy groups compared to other categories. In summary, there were more navigational outlinks for informative content than ideological affiliations. The results are discussed from the perspective of Asian values underlying political communication as well as online culture. Finally, this study performs an important role in contributing to the small but growing literature on how the Internet is affecting the practices of nations outside of the established democracies of the West.