Keyword analysis of the mass media’s news articles on maker education in South Korea

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate—using text network analysis—how key Korean mass media outlets present issues of maker education. To accomplish this goal, 1303 news articles (associated with maker education) were collected as issued by 54 Korean mass media companies. Based on this data, this study reports the frequency and network analyses using keywords gaining the following findings. First, the findings of a yearly trend in issues indicated an increased volume of issues related to maker education. In particular, there were sharp increases when the Korean government announced its maker education policy in 2017 and 2018. The monthly trend within this time period indicated that there were many news articles in May, June, October, and November. Second, the frequency analysis showed predominant keywords like education, student, maker education, maker, and school. TF–IDF analysis finalized the following keywords: maker, school, student, makerspace, support, and work. Third, network analysis of the keywords showed categorized terms such as future education, school curriculum-linked maker education, maker education for youths, diffusion of maker culture, maker education support project, direction on maker education policy, fabrication, and start-up. The following recommendations are derived from these findings. First, maker education policy should be expanded to the public: in particular, the target and projects for maker education should be expanded to diverse people and places. Second, full recognition of technology and design education are necessary to help settle maker education. This study will provide an outline for research regarding maker education and its implementation.