With the rising popularity of blogs among today's youth, more candidates are taking their campaigns into the blogosphere, which has become the latest battlefield for the upcoming Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections.
Although the word "blog" was first coined in 1999, it wasn't mentioned during the nation's election campaigns in 2000. It was not until 2004 that blogging really entered the mainstream.
According to a survey conducted by marketing researcher InsightXplorer Limited that was released last month, the dominant age group for bloggers still consists mostly of those under 29, but the number of bloggers over 30 is increasing.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
About 30 to 40 percent of bloggers are students and about 20 percent are white-collar workers, the survey showed.
To reach these young voters, candidates have have adapted by writing blogs of their own.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Lung-bin (
That first blog introduced Hau's background, stories about his life and his campaign platform. Then, in an attempting to attract younger voters, Hau's camp launched two more blogs, with one telling Hau's story with comics (www.wretch.cc/blog/longbin) and the other posting campaign commercials and video clips from campaign events (www.im.tv/myvlog/longbin).
Tony Tso, director of the Web site team for Hau's campaign, told the Taipei Times that the design of the blogs is aimed at revealing Hau's sincerity and friendliness while appealing to voters through animated layouts and interesting articles.
"Voters are not that attracted by campaign platforms, so we first posted Hau's personal stories and experiences on the [first] blog to give voters a better understanding of his character," said Tso, who declined to give his Chinese name.
The comic blog, in addition to highlighting Hau's experience as the former head of the Environmental Protection Administration, also poked fun at the candidate.
"We invited campaign workers to share funny stories or observations about Hau in everyday life and had the artist put them into the comics ? We want people to know him better and not feel that he is someone too high too reach," he said.
Besides taking Hau's campaign into the blogosphere, the camp also recruited about 50 to 60 young volunteers tasked with attracting younger voters through designing creative campaign ads and planning activities such as graffiti contests and baseball and basketball games.
According to Chen Chia-chiang (陳家祥), the executive secretary of the youth volunteer team, the volunteers also joined the candidates on their visits to grassroots supporters and borough wardens -- something younger volunteers do not usually get a chance to do.
"Some borough wardens were surprised to see young people and thought they would have problems communicating with us at first, but later they said that they were glad to see us," he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Frank Hsieh (
Hsieh's team has endeavored to make the blogs very personal so that voters will come away with a feeling that they not only know Hsieh as a mayoral candidate, but also know his personality.
To that end, on Chinese Lovers' Day this year, an old wedding picture of Hsieh and his wife was posted on one of his blogs, along with an intimate story about their relationship.
It might not be easy for voters to associate the feeling of being in love with a politician, but blogs such as that on Hsieh's wedding help to soften a candidate's image.
Hsieh's campaign also appears to be trying to strengthen his image as a daring dreamer through the blogs.
In order to demonstrate Hsieh's vision for Taipei -- particularly his dream that Taipei compete for the right of being the host city for the Olympic Games in 2020 -- campaign video clips were posted on one of his blogs at the same time that they were run on TV.
Because anyone with an Internet connection can replay the clips on his blog at any time, Hsieh can present his "dream" campaign theme to more people, and at a lower cost, than by airing TV ads.
Chen Lu-huei (陳陸輝), an associate research fellow at the Election Study Center of National Cheng-chi University (NCCU), told the Taipei Times that the most effective campaign themes in past elections in Taiwan aroused a sympathetic response in voters.
People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
The blog presents Soong's campaign platform and has a large section devoted to allowing Taipei residents to post their complaints or suggestions about the city's government.
Soong's team is also using a mobile campaign office to get the word out.
Spokeswoman Bao Hui-chuan (包慧娟) said that the office -- a remodeled tour bus covered with Soong's campaign advertisements and equipped with tables, computers, fax machines and a wireless Internet connection -- allows the candidate to directly exchange ideas with residents in many different parts of the city.
Unlike Hsieh's more intimate blogs, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Taipei mayoral candidate Clara Chou's (
Articles on Chou's blog entitled A Sunny Woman and A Promising City offered mostly criticism about political issues and her electoral opponents.
The narratives of the articles, much like Chou's personal image, are straightforward and poignant.
In Kaohsiung, DPP mayoral candidate Chen Chu's (
By making Sister Chu animated icons available for download and by selling Sister Chu magnets on her blog, Chen, though in her 50s, is able to present herself to younger voters as a person in touch with the digital world.
Chen and Hsieh's blogs attempt to portray them as approachable next-door neighbors. Voters can keep track of Hsieh's daily routine through an interactive online map in one of his blogs, and on Chen's blog they can see pictures of her in a curly, free-flowing hairdo.
The blog of KMT Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying (
TSU Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Lo Chih-ming's (
While promoting candidates through creative, interactive blogs is a growing phenomenon targeted at younger voters, political analysts say that highlighting candidates' characteristics and solid campaign platforms remain crucial in any campaign.
"Especially as the election day gets closer, candidates who are able to give voters a stronger impression are more likely to be the winners," said Ku Chung-hwa (
Commenting on the blogs of KMT candidates, Wang Yeh-li (王業立), a professor of politics at Taichung's Tung Hai University, said Hau and Huang shared the characteristics of kindness and sincerity, but both lacked charisma.
Although blogs may prove useful in election campaigns, it is unlikely that the voters will make their decisions based solely on reading a candidate's blog.
But Hau's blog allows him to interact with voters, and some bloggers have discussed serious issues such as the facilities for the disabled with him in the blog, Tso said.
Though candidate blogs are increasing in number, they may not be as effective as a campaign teams would hope, said Katherine Chen (
"Blogs are, after all, not mass media," she said, adding that it was still not clear that blogs are able to actually reach targeted voters as there is no way of evaluating their effectiveness.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift