Since the launch of the 22nd National Assembly, a "press room chat" has emerged as a must-have for lawmakers and election contenders. A press room chat is a messaging room that politicians create to distribute schedules and reference materials to journalists. In the past, party-run official press room chats were the norm, but lately, press room chats are increasingly being created by individual politicians.
The number of participants in a press room chat varies widely by politician. As a result, there is even talk in Yeouido that the "number of participants in a press room chat" reflects a "politician's weight class." As politicians have recently ramped up online promotion using social media (SNS), they are paying noticeably more attention to their press room chats.
Looking at press room chats run by individual politicians, as of on the 24th, the person with the largest number of participants was former People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon. Han's press room chat had 604 participants. After being quiet for a while following the presidential election, Han recently declared a run in the Busan Buk-gap National Assembly by-election and began drawing attention again. For reference, the People Power Party's official press room chat has 760 participants, and the Democratic Party's official press room chat has 1,171.
Democratic Party Seoul mayoral primary contenders also showed differences in the size of their press room chats. Chong Won-o, the former Seongdong District head who was confirmed as the final candidate, had 472 participants, and Rep. Park Ju-min, who made it to the runoff, had 471. Rep. Choo Mi-ae, selected as the Gyeonggi governor candidate, had 353, two to three times larger than other contenders. The press room chat for Kim Boo-kyum, considered the Democratic Party's "sure-win card for Daegu," had 434 participants.
Among People Power Party lawmakers, Rep. Na Kyung-won had a relatively large press room chat with 420 participants. Others included Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo with 392, Rep. Choo Kyung-ho with 323, and National Assembly Vice Speaker Joo Ho-young with 318. Kim Jin-tae, the People Power Party candidate for Gangwon governor, had 227. Rep. Joo Jin-woo, who ran for mayor of Busan, had 221, while only 44 joined the press room chat for People Power Party candidate Choi Min-ho, who is seeking another term as Sejong mayor.
Some politicians are putting serious effort into running their personal press room chats. The more journalists join, the more coverage they get. In the case of local election campaign teams, it has also become common to assign multiple staffers to manage the press room chat.
A National Assembly aide said, "We tend to encourage people around us because the more people join (the press room chat), the more media exposure we get," adding, "Naturally, journalists' interest will differ depending on the politician's moves and, accordingly, their weight class."