1. ARTICLE IN PRESS
The International Information & Library Review (2008) 40, 104–111
Available at www.sciencedirect.com
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/iilr
Digital media education for Korean youth
Han Woo Parka,Ã, J. Patrick Biddixb
a
Department of Communication and Information, YeungNam University, South Korea
b
Valdosta State University, Georgia, USA
Summary
As youth in contemporary societies grow increasingly dependent on digital media, media
education has become a policy consideration, particularly in wired parts of the non-
Western world. Due to rapid adoption rates, media penetration, and positive attitudes
toward new and innovative technologies, Korea presents an ideal test case for
understanding the everyday impact of digital media. The purpose of this paper is to
examine the national policies and public discourse concerning digital media education in a
rapidly growing market. Specifically, this study considers the development of a
standardized educational program for youth in Korea. To frame this analysis, we present
an overview of the types of digital media education and trends at the national policy level
among English-speaking countries. This is supported by a review of literature focusing on
the use of digital media among youth, supplemented by current digital media usage
statistics among Korean youth and an overview of Korean government policy programs. A
case study of Web site analysis is presented to illustrate implications and stimulate
discussion regarding educational policy.
& 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
As youth in contemporary societies grow increasingly though limited research has addressed youth digital media
dependent on digital media, media education has become education in academic and policy spheres (Hargrave &
a policy consideration, particularly in wired parts of the Livingstone, 2006).
non-Western world. In our modern digital age, today’s youth The purpose of this paper is to examine the national
are more reliant than any previous generation on new policies and public discourse concerning digital media
technologies for entertainment as well as communications- education in a rapidly growing market. Specifically, this
related, educational, and occupational reasons (Lenhart, study considers the development of a standardized educa-
Madden, & Hitlin, 2005). For parents, terms describing tional program for youth in Korea. To frame this analysis, we
‘‘safety in cyberspace,’’ and ‘‘control of Internet use’’ have present an overview of the types of digital media education
become synonymous with media education (Fleming, Green- and international trends at the national policy level. This is
tree, Cocotti-Muller, Elias, & Morrison, 2006) in the home, supported by a review of literature focusing on the use of
digital media among youth, supplemented by current
ÃCorresponding author. Tel.: +82 53 810 2275; digital media usage statistics among Korean youth and an
fax: +82 16 9812 4460. overview of Korean government policy programs. A case
E-mail address: hanpark@ynu.ac.kr (H.W. Park). study of Web site analysis is presented to illustrate
URL: http://www.hanpark.net (H.W. Park). implications and stimulate discussion regarding educational
1057-2317/$ - see front matter & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.iilr.2007.12.003

2. ARTICLE IN PRESS
Digital media education for Korean youth 105
policy. The referent term, youth, describes adolescents important for both empowerment and protection of youth.
ranging from 13 to 18 years of age. For example, free (or affordable) distribution of filtering
software among young people is crucial in order to dissuade
Aims and scope of digital media education them from accessing illegal content transmitted through
digital media.
The pragmatic aim of digital media education is two-fold:
empowerment and protection. The empowerment aspect
Digital skill
seeks to help young people learn how to make the best use
of new digital media and content that is conveyed through
the media; the protection aspect focuses on shielding young Material access issues (including possession of hardware/
people from new media influences that might be harmful to software) can be resolved through the physical availability
development. According to research in the field of informa- of suitable digital media, but there may be a gap in digital
tion science and media education (Cheong, 2006; Domaille & skills among youth. From the perspective of information
Buckingham, 2001; Eastin & LaRose, 2000; Hargrave & ethics and philosophy, Takenouchi (2006, forthcoming)
Livingstone, 2006; Livingstone & Bober, 2004; Machill, 2002; noted that promoting digital media education as a national
Park, 2002b; Rafaeli & Ariel, 2005; van Dijk, 2005), digital policy among youth in Asian countries may foster a skill- or
media education is generally referred to as ‘‘digital media techno-centered mechanical world, contributing to the
literacy’’ and can be subdivided into three domains: (1) growth and development of ‘‘multi-mode’’ mental func-
awareness, (2) hardware/software access, and (3) digital tions. Moreover, digital skill is believed to be central to
skill. helping youth make the most of the benefits arising from
technological innovation, while concurrently leading to
more informed judgments regarding content and usage in
Awareness cyberspace.
Aspects of digital media skills include: technical literacy,
The goal of media education for youth is to raise awareness informational literacy, and communication literacy, which
of the increasing importance of digital media in everyday should be viewed as complementary skills. Technical literacy
life. From the protectionist’s perspective, application of this involves the operation of individual digital media. Education
domain cautions the potential and present dangers of digital in technical skills enables young people to diagnose and
media. Conducting public campaigns can be an effective solve technical problems (e.g., malfunctions or viruses) on
means to achieve this goal, though Domaille and Bucking- their own. The understanding and use of some computer
ham (2001) identified a contemporary shift toward languages (e.g., HTML, Java) is also a part of technical
notions of critical awareness and democratic participation literacy. Informational literacy includes the ability to
approaches. effectively retrieve, access, and utilize information. Using
Livingstone and her colleagues (Livingstone & Bober, improved digital media, young people with appropriate
2004; Livingstone, Bober, & Helsper, 2004) conducted a literacy levels for a given activity can organize, transform,
government-sponsored project titled ‘‘UK children go on- and exchange information in a number of ways depending on
line’’ (http://www.children-go-online.net) and found that when and how it is needed. In particular, the primary
today’s digital media affords important opportunities such element of newly invented digital media is interactivity
as informal learning and participation among young people. (Rafaeli & Ariel, 2005). As interactive digital media requires
However, not all of the available opportunities were the active involvement of the user, youths who have
uniformly utilized. More recently, Cheong (2006) conducted insufficient information literacy levels are rarely motivated
a research project on the Internet among young adults to creatively use their skills (Eastin & LaRose, 2000).
(age 15–24 years) in Singapore sponsored by and in Through the education of information literacy, young people
collaboration with the National Youth Council. Contrary to are then better equipped to employ digital media to seek,
the popular vision of youth as a group of technically savvy select, and utilize information in learning, working, and
experts, her findings reveal substantial variations in the use problem-solving.
of digital media among youth. In other words, Singaporean Communication literacy broadly refers to the ability to
youth showed considerable differences in their Internet interact with others using digital media in various contexts.
expertise and problem-solving behaviors, with some demon- This is synonymous with communicative competence, or the
strating limited knowledge of Internet use and awareness of ability to accurately express oneself and to actively network
troubleshooting strategies. with others using digital media. For instance, rules for
Internet behavior in discussion groups, chatrooms, and blogs
Hardware/software access should be taught to improve the process of both information
exchange and knowledge transfer. Since cyberspace is
There may be inequality in accessing new digital equipment becoming a common gathering place for today’s youth,
and services among young people. When it comes to netiquette (e.g., the use of friendly language, favorable
advanced digital media such as mobile phones, PMP avatars, appropriate smileys, etc.) may be increasingly
(portable media players), and MP3 players, material access important for young people. Recent studies reveal that the
to technology can be limited. In this case, media education online and offline worlds of teenagers are seamlessly
suggests a hardware-oriented approach. For instance, connected, leading to a digital media dependency for
educational targets lie in the realization of equitable access activities ranging from managing their daily lives to building
to and utilization of digital media. Material access is also and maintaining virtual communities (McMillan & Morrison,

3. ARTICLE IN PRESS
106 H.W. Park, J.P. Biddix
2006; Thomas, 2006). Because English is the international optional courses in media studies as well as in specialist
language of Internet-mediated communication, a lack of media arts colleges with a stronger curricular media
fluency in English can cause a lack of access to information component. Student learning in specialist courses is formally
(Park & Thelwall, 2006). This points to the importance of assessed via written essays, practical tasks, and evaluation
English for communication literacy among youth in non- work in the fields of media language, media institutions,
English-speaking countries. media audiences, and representation. However, curricular
media education is generally not assessed, either by
teachers or examiners, nor is it documented by school
Trends in digital media education in English- inspections. Another issue is the lack of formal training in
speaking countries media education for teachers. Government agencies (e.g.,
Department of Culture, Media and Sport) continue to
In this section, the findings of the ‘‘Youth Media Education address the need for more consistent curriculum-based
Survey 2001’’ conducted by the United Nations Educational training for teachers, as well as for clear policy on media
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (Domaille & education. The representative organization is the British
Buckingham, 2001) are summarized to examine trends in Film Institute (http://www.bfi.org.uk). The British Film
youth digital media education among three English-speaking Institute, a government-funded body, has played a key role
countries. We present responses from survey and interview in the development of media education, particularly in
data from three countries that have relatively sophisticated relation to moving-image media of film and television, over
media education systems at the national level: Canada, the last 50 years.
Australia, and England. The examples provided by these three countries with
As of September 2000, media education in Canada has well-established media education systems have significantly
become a mandatory component of the language arts influenced other parts of worlds. As Domaille and Bucking-
curriculum. Canadian media studies courses are concerned ham (2001) summarize, media education has tended to
with helping students develop a critical understanding of move away from an approach based on inoculation towards
mass media, the techniques used by mass media organiza- one based on empowerment. However, educators in many
tions, and the impact of these techniques. Up to 30% of the countries still provide basic print literacy. Digital media
overall assessment in media education can be practical in education is only just beginning to be identified as a national
focus. The curriculum benefits from well-established part- policy concern.
nerships in Canada between media educators and media
producers. For example, the cable broadcaster CHUM-TV has
supplied programming in support of media education goals Digital media usage by Korean youth
as well as providing funding for networks for media
education. In some respects, the situation in Canada seems Due to rapid adoption rates, media penetration, and
quite well advanced but there is little specific teacher positive attitudes toward new and innovative technologies,
education or training on the study or use of screen-based Korea is an ideal test case for understanding the everyday
media. Teachers often come from language/literature impact of digital media. As of December 2005, Korea had the
backgrounds and extrapolate their media curricula on the 13th highest Internet penetration, according to the most
basis of areas of interest they may have informally recent data available from Internet World Stats (http://
developed. Canadian organizations related to media educa- www.internetworldstats.com). About two-thirds (0.66 or,
tion are as follows: Media Awareness Network (http:// 33.9 of 50.6 million) of the Korean population accessed the
www.media-awareness.ca/), Association for Media Literacy Internet as of December 2005.
(http://www.aml.ca), and Canadian Association of Media According to the National Internet Development Agency
Education Organizations (CAMEO) (http://interact.uoregon. of Korea (hereafter NIDA) (2006), the Internet usage rate of
edu/MediaLit/CAMEO). people aged 6–19 is 97.8% of the 9.15 million people in that
In Australia, media education is a substantial part of the demographic. Further, more than 80% of middle- (83.6%) and
language curriculum. Australian schools are well equipped high-school students (89.3%) access the Internet through
with a range of digital media and new learning technologies wireless connections (NIDA, 2005). Youths (aged 12–19) who
for material access. Provision of media education in have their own mobile phones use the Internet 6.7 times per
Australia varies somewhat by state, but the shared goal is week. In the case of the most recent media DMB (Digital
to yield critical consumers and to provide opportunities for Multimedia Broadcasting), young people’s (between 12 and
practical production. Media education tends to be focused 19) awareness of DMB has increased rapidly from 17.5% in
within schools, and there is relatively little collaboration 2004 to 54.0% in 2005. Overall, teenagers used online
with youth groups or industry. More importantly, only community and email services more than any other group as
trained media studies teachers are appointed to teach the of June 2005 (Korea Internet Safety Commission (hereafter,
subject. The representative Australian organization related KISCOM), 2005).
to media education is the Australian Teachers of Media It is important to note that optimistic visions of Korea’s
(ATOM) (http://www.atomvic.org). ATOM is an independent, information society based on the development of digital
non-profit, professional organization of media educators and infrastructure (usually gauged in terms of broadband
media industry representatives. Internet subscribers and the penetration of digital media)
As compared to other countries, English media education have been criticized by some scholars. Critical evaluations
is the most firmly established in the curriculum. This is report that utopian approaches tend to veil a newly
identifiable by the continuous expansion of specialist appearing digital divide (Park, 2002b; van Dijk, 2005) and

4. ARTICLE IN PRESS
Digital media education for Korean youth 107
distort the social discourse on the consequences of new government should be able to identify those media
digital technologies in Korea (Kim, 2006). that encourage activities that are dangerous or illegal, the
NYC provides young people with freely available access
prevention tools (e.g., http://youth.go.kr/bd/bd01000.asp,
Policy and practice of digital media education http://www.webclean21.org).
in Korea However, digital access education in Korea as it is
currently implemented is not as effective as education
This section reviews current trends in national-level youth concerning the established media (e.g., television, radio,
policies related to digital media education. Korea has film, magazine, and advertising). Youths are well aware of
attempted a sophisticated educational framework with what governmental filtering labels on traditional media with
many different media, although a formally established harmful, violent, or pornographic messages mean, though
media educational curriculum currently does not exist. For digital media present new challenges. Concerning the
two decades, media education in schools has been largely a difficulties of critical access education on new digital media
component of Korean Language courses. The primary in real-life settings, Hargrave and Livingstone (2006) state:
curricular focus has been to educate students on the ability
The newer technologies (including video but also the
to selectively receive and critically understand political,
Internet and mobile communications) allow content
commercial, violent, and sexual messages through tradi-
to be seen out of context. One may see sets of trailers
tional mass media, particularly television and newspaper.
rather than the storyline in which to put the content.
Since the widespread dissemination of the Internet in the
Editorial context has always been important in content
early 2000s, digital media education has been introduced in
regulation guidelines (e.g., BBFC, Ofcom), but it may
elective courses (e.g., pre-vocational courses) as well as in
prove difficult to build into parallel guidelines for new
social studies. In practice however, digital media education
media. However, it is clear from research on children’s
appears to take place unsystematically as compared to
accidental exposure to pornography on the Internet that
conventional media education.
unexpected and decontextualised content can be parti-
Since the widespread adoption of multifarious digital
cularly upsetting. This poses a challenge for regulators.
media among youth, the Korean government has enacted
(p. 205)
policies to increase the awareness of newly developing
digital media (e.g., electronic boards, mobile phones, PMP,
etc.) through public communications including campaigns To further enhance information and communication
and experiential activities. E-learning and u-learning literacy, the NYC has recently extended the activity scope
(ubiquitous learning) have become buzzwords among of teachers who guide youth in digital media education
policy-makers, particularly in the Ministry of Education (NYC, 2005). Traditionally, teachers are expected to adhere
(hereafter MOE). A number of media ranging from book-style to basic duties of youth development. With the increasing
pamphlets to exhibition centers are used as efficient importance of digital media education aimed at young
channels to inform young people and to boost their people, prospective teachers as well as those already in
awareness and knowledge of digital technologies. For service are now offered training courses to inform them on
example, the Ministry of Information and Communication how to reduce young people’s exposure to inappropriate
(hereafter MIC) recently built a ‘‘Ubiquitous Dream Hall’’ online materials. Since 2002, the Korean government has
2005 (http://www.ubiquitousdream.or.kr) for youth to offered teacher guides, free counseling services for youth,
experience educational environments that have changed and has trained counselors to help prevent harmful digital
due to the development of digital media. media exposure (Korean Agency for Digital Opportunity
To enhance public access to digital media, the MOE (hereafter, KADO, 2006)). In 2004, the NYC developed a
implemented a comprehensive plan for a two-phase ‘‘cyber-ethics indicator’’ and has attempted to treat young
education information system between 2001 and 2005 people who suffer from the side effects of digital media
(MOE, 2005). This vigorous policy program has improved (NYC, 2005).
the digital infrastructures within schools that had previously The Korean government is ardently committed to im-
lacked access to computers and the Internet. In the case of plementing digital media education programs for young
middle- and high-school students in Korea, Internet use rate people, partially in response to youth unemployment.
was close to 100% in September 2005 (NIDA, 2006). The Software education has been provided for low-income
report notes that the most frequently used place to access teenagers to promote technical literacy since 1999 (KADO,
the Internet by young people (6–19) is at home (99.1%). 2006). In addition, education programs for helping youth
Commercial public access facilities such as Internet cafes ´ enter the workforce were introduced in 2005. Since 2002,
(25.2%) and school (22.7%) follow. online software education programs have also been afforded
To inform youth about unsafe media influences, the to teenagers in regions where physical education centers do
National Youth Commission (hereafter NYC), began a not exist. For example, online bimonthly programs are
‘‘regularly monitoring project’’ focused on popular digital available on the Web (http://www.estudy.or.kr). Moreover,
media outlets among Korea’s youth population. Examples a public participation Web site was established by the
included online games, online chatting, community Web government to allow young people to exchange jointly
sites, and mobile content (NYC, 2006). The dozens of suicide created content (http://www.youthdream.go.kr).
Web sites in which teenagers discuss killing themselves or One of the most intriguing recent phenomena in Korea has
group suicide are examples of the unsafe media influence been the creation of an information and communication
among online communities. On the premise that the ethics textbook for middle- and high-school students in early

5. ARTICLE IN PRESS
108 H.W. Park, J.P. Biddix
2006 (KADO, 2006). To our knowledge, to date, no country Data collection
has developed a nationally authorized textbook for middle-
and high-school students that specializes in the socio-ethical A listing of Korea’s Web sites related to the digital media
aspects of digital media. The Korean government expects education of youth was collected via a manual GoogleTM
the textbook to help reinforce the importance of digital crawl. Although the Web can be considered a globalized
ethics in schools and to further develop resource-based system, specific national domains can be searched by using
learning experiences to increase students’ media literacy the ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain); for example,
within the context of school curricula. using ‘‘.kr’’ for Korea and/or the national language, which is
In addition, other agencies and groups sponsor similar in this case Korean. The detailed search command was
initiatives aimed at digital media education. For example, ‘‘youth digital media education site:.kr’’. This specification
the Korea Press Foundation (hereafter KPF) attached enabled a search confined to the national Web sites of Korea
directly to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (hereafter which included the words ‘‘youth,’’ ‘‘digital,’’ ‘‘media,’’ and
MOCT) holds a number of media education programs. ‘‘education.’’ These particular search terms were selected
The KPF focuses on linking professional journalists based on the review of literature and current educational
(especially retired journalists) with students so that initiatives in Korea, as previously summarized. We limited
youths can experience media production. Also, there are the GoogleTM search to only those Web sites that had been
several private courses by NGOs (non-governmental organi- updated in the year preceding our study. Data collection was
zations), civic and advocacy organizations, media providers conducted on July 27, 2006. The GoogleTM search yielded
(e.g., press organizations, digital media manufacturers, 364 Web sites, comprising 54.8% of the total potential 664
content providers, etc.), and academic associations in Web sites in Korea’s domain containing the four search
Korea. terms. The titles and the introductory text of the 364 sites
In summary, the policies and practices of digital media were then copied from the search results for analysis.
education in Korea are not pervasive among all components
of governmental agency. The aforementioned NYC was
Analysis procedure
created on May 2, 2005 to contend with Korea’s youth-
related policies including digital and other media education.
To analyze input data, we first identified the most
But the NYC has been unable to unite the various programs
frequently used words. These encompass key words, major
of media education undertaken by other governmental
issues, or salient symbols represented in the text (Park,
agencies. Arguably, this is mostly due to the bureaucratic
2002a). Second, we examined semantic associations within
structure of the Korean government. Governmental institu-
the sample, since words tend to render a particular meaning
tions have invested considerable financial and human
when combined with other words in a specific form (Doerfel
resources to develop and operate new policy domains
& Barnett, 1999). For example, ‘‘mass’’ and ‘‘media’’ are
regarding youth digital media education.
two words that together create the concept ‘‘mass media.’’
The development and expansion of current efforts,
This procedure allows content categories to emerge from
coupled with future considerations, suggested the need for
the data (in this case, text clippings from the 364 Web sites).
a study of digital media education for Korean youth within
Lastly, to display individual key words and semantic
the contemporary global dialog. First, we shall examine Web
relations among the words, we employed social network
sites related to Korean youth’s digital media education in
visualization techniques. We completed the textual analysis
order to explore the presentation of educational offerings.
using the FullText software developed by Leydesdorff
Then we shall attempt to develop a public discourse frame
(1995). For social network visualization, we turned to the
by examining the components of current online educational
NetDraw function embedded in the UCINET program
programs in order to frame recommendations for extending
(Borgatti, Everett, & Freeman, 2002).
contemporary policies and practices.
Results
Method
The 10 most frequently appearing words were EDUCATION,
The purpose of this case study is to obtain an exploratory YOUTH, DIGITAL, and MEDIA, followed by CAMERA, KOREA,
description of public discourse surrounding digital media INFORMATION, NEW, WORLD, JOURNAL, and IT. Given that
education aimed at Korean youth. To accomplish this, we the Web sites were those related to digital media education
examine the Web representation using a webometric for youth, key symbols represented in the Korean Web
approach. Webometrics applies quantitative techniques to domain appear to be words related to new technology and
various information and communication aspects of the policy. The word EDUCATION occurred 265 times, which
Web using links and words contained in Web documents comprised 2.5% of the total words in the Web site texts.
(Thelwall, Vaughan, & Bjorneborn, 2005). Similar to
¨ YOUTH appeared 247 times (2.3%), DIGITAL 239 times
scientometric analysis, the webometric approach evaluates (2.2%), and MEDIA 207 (2.0%). The sum occurrence of the
the internal communication structure of the Web system in four words is 958 times (9.1%). The high frequencies of
terms of content frequency and the relationship among the the four words altogether may be taken as an indicator of
words in Web sites (Park, Hong, & Leydesdorff, 2005). the validity of the data collection in this research, as they
Webometrics has been adopted in information communica- served as search terms.
tion science to investigate public perception of Web content The next most often mentioned words included some
(Leydesdorff & Hellsten, 2005). attention-grabbers. For example, CAMERA and IT were used

6. ARTICLE IN PRESS
Digital media education for Korean youth 109
42 and 28 times, respectively. The word CAMERA was used words and connected words in the center of the diagram.
several times with DIGITAL, which suggests that media Other nodes are iteratively repositioned with a relaxed
education concerning DIGITAL CAMERA is popular in Korea. length proportional to the edge length.
However, we discovered no discernible trends within the set When we apply network visualization techniques, the
of prominent words that included the four most frequently semantic network among the words looks like the spoke of a
occurring words. wheel. A spoke at a larger level of aggregation suggests that
A list of the most frequently occurring 64 key words (those the most frequently occurring four words have a significant
detected at least 10 times) are summarized in Table 1. The number of relations (i.e., co-occurrence) with others.
total number of words used for the input data was 10,480. However, this makes it difficult to determine categories or
All non-essential grammar terms such as articles, conjunc- themes to describe a public discourse frame. Except for the
tions, prepositions, transitive verbs, and other problematic search terms, other top words are scattered and rarely form
words specified by the researcher were removed from the a single group. As mentioned earlier, one possible reason is
overall calculation of key words. that the Web has some valuable resources that various
A visualization analysis using NetDraw illustrates the organizations use. Relevant words are strictly aligned with
semantic connectivity among the 64 words. As shown in prominent words. Nonetheless, we are able to find some
Figure 1, circles represent the 64 most frequently occurring weak groupings, although they are not as strongly organized
words while lines indicate the semantic relationships among as independent semantic clusters. Figure 1 indicates that
them. The thickness of the lines is proportional to the co- technology-related terms (e.g., CAMERA, IT, WEB, etc.) have
occurrence of frequencies between two words but when the the strongest relationship with the top four words.
value between two words is below the average 2.70
(S.D. ¼ 9.05) lines are omitted. During this process, we
used Kamada and Kawai’s (1989) algorithm (available in the Policy recommendations
NetDraw feature) to place the most frequently occurring
The examination of domestic and international trends
framing this analysis suggests that the Korean government
Table 1 Key words used more than 10 times. should provide appropriate opportunities within a range of
curriculum areas to teach safe and responsible use of digital
Frequency Keyword Frequency Keyword media. Since access to early digital media, i.e., personal
computers and the Internet, are already pervasive among
265 EDUCATION 15 GOVERNMENT
Korean youths, future efforts need to focus on an under-
247 YOUTH 15 HUMAN
standing of the role and the effects of both general digital
239 DIGITAL 15 MANAGEMENT
media and newly emerging media on the individual and on
207 MEDIA 14 MINISTRY
society.
42 CAMERA 13 COMMUNICATION
Further, the Web site analysis provides a social landscape
42 KOREA 13 COMPUTER
of digital media education. Overall, the general Korean
39 INFORMATION 13 ELECTRONIC
public seems to be less engaged in digital media education
33 NEW 13 GROUP
for youth than was expected. If digital media education is to
31 WORLD 13 PEOPLE
become a major concern of the general public, the Korean
30 JOURNAL 13 RESEARCH
government must ardently seek to establish new ways by
28 IT 13 SEOUL
which all members of society, especially parents and media
27 SCIENCE 13 WEB
providers (including device manufacturers), can actively
26 INTERNET 13 WORK
participate in the discussion of digital media education.
26 UNIVERSITY 13 YOUNG
Digital media education programs need to be quickly
25 CULTURE 12 LEARNING
formulated to enhance technical, informational, and com-
25 SERVICE 12 NATIONAL
munications-related skills in order to expand critical
24 INTERNATIONAL 12 REPORT
awareness among youth. There is no standardized textbook
24 REVIEW 12 RESOURCE
to integrate these three elements of digital skills and overall
22 TECHNOLOGY 12 SCHOOL
assessment tools are not available in schools. The central
21 CHILDREN 12 SPORT
government (probably, a consortium body of the NYC and
21 TRAINING 11 BROADCASTING
other relevant agencies) could play a crucial role in
20 CONTENT 11 DEPARTMENT
establishing a formal and standardized educational package
20 KOREAN 11 ENVIRONMENTAL
that is similar to the information and communication ethics
20 SYSTEM 11 HOME
textbook, composed of class materials for student practice
19 ART 11 LIBRARY
and assessment indicators for student progress in digital
19 SOCIAL 11 SOCIETY
media education. This text could be paired with an online
18 DEVELOPMENT 10 COUNCIL
peer learning component to enhance learning through
18 PROGRAM 10 HIGHER
collaboration.
17 E 10 ONLINE
The Internet can be an effective channel and a rich
15 CENTER 10 PLAN
resource to provide easy and cost efficient access to
15 COMMUNITY 10 SATELLITE
information. To capitalize on this potential, online knowl-
15 DESIGN 10 WWW
edge-sharing networks need to be created. In other words,
n ¼ 10,480. programs could be developed to educate youth in the use of

7. ARTICLE IN PRESS
110 H.W. Park, J.P. Biddix
Figure 1 A diagram of semantic relations among the 64 key words.
digital media through shared participation in an online peer Doerfel, Marya, & Barnett, George (1999). A semantic network
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Eastin, Matthew, & LaRose, Robert. (2000). Internet self-efficacy
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