This study aims to analyze education related articles in terms of a broad sense of lifelong education centering on media, which form the general opinions over the society and affect the changes in recognition among common people most, and then focus o...
This study aims to analyze education related articles in terms of a broad sense of lifelong education centering on media, which form the general opinions over the society and affect the changes in recognition among common people most, and then focus on articles related to lifelong education in the narrow sense. First of all, how and in what perspective media report educational policies, how educational policies are delivered to common people, the percentage of reported themes set as the stage of lifelong education in the stages of learning in life(lifelong education in legal concept), and the characteristics were examined in quantitative analysis and information source analysis.
As a result, 3,267 articles related to "education" were released in 3 newspapers for one year, which indicates that about 10 a day on average were reported in a newspaper. For each newspaper, Donga Ilbo reported 1,231 cases, Chosun Ilbo 1,067 cases, and JoongAng Ilbo 969 cases in the order.
The tone of the argument was neutral(56.08%), negative(38.78%), and positive(5.14%) in the order. The analysis shows that neutral tone of argument accounted for the majority, 56.08%, but the negative and positive articles cannot be neglected in terms of the media's social influence even though the number is relatively small.
As for the types of articles, 'straight' articles for the purpose of information delivery accounted for 81.94%, and then editorial articles followed. In addition, 'essays' of experts and 'journalists' columns' written by journalists were more than readers' columns. Especially, ‘journalists columns’ and editorial articles presented relatively negative perspectives(75.86% and 61.23% respectively) compared to other types of articles. As a result of analyzing articles reported for the whole year regarding learning stages in life, it turned out that the focus was on "university entrance" and "higher education in university." Among 3,267 articles in total, 1,129, almost 34.56%, focused on university entrance and higher education, especially "university entrance."
'Elementary and middle school curriculum and assessment,' which was the third in number, also mainly reported 'university entrance' information such as academic achievement evaluation and school information. On the other hand, 'lifelong education' and 'human resource' areas accounted for less than 2% respectively, which clearly indicates the imbalance among areas of education-related articles reported.
One or two articles which introduce more information than others among learning stages in life were selected for each month, and the number of negative articles was analyzed: 172 articles on university entrance(private education), 132 articles on the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers Union, and 93 articles on Law School in the order.
As a result of analyzing the information source of education related article, it turned out that most of news was official reports with the government as the major source. 1,459 reports(54.50%) of the three newspapers were introduced mainly by the government.
Lifelong education related articles(including career and vocational education articles) accounted for 1.16%(38 articles), which was the smallest among the topics regarding learning stages in life. If 15 articles related to career education are excluded, those related to lifelong education are only 23 articles.
As a result of reclassifying 23 articles on lifelong education(cyber-university related article, large scale lifelong education events conducted by the government, etc), it turned out that cyber-university related articles accounted for more than the half - 60.87%. On the other hand, articles on large-scale lifelong education conducted by the government to activate lifelong education were only 3 for the whole year by Donga Ilbo(2) and JoongAng Ilbo(1), which well shows that the media had little interest in lifelong education compared to other topics. Especially, Chosun Ilbo did not at all report large scale yearly event for lifelong education conducted by the government.
However, as for the tone of argument, 60% of the total articles were neutral or positive, while 95.66% of the articles on lifelong were positive or neutral, which indicates that the media favorably reported lifelong education related topics.
Based on the results above, the important aspects in lifelong education-related reports are as follows:
First, vital issues should be reported in a timely manner in consideration of various education fields. Since university entrance examination is deeply linked to important issues such as strengthening of public education and private education, no wonder it draws much attention. However, in addition to education for school-age centering on high schools, various areas such as lifelong education(on policies), human resource, infant education also need consistent interests. Especially, the fact that articles on lifelong education were only 23 among 3,267 articles clearly shows that we have interest only in school-age education.
Second, since issues on education are not matters of one or two years, the media should form the public opinion so that not temporal measures, but comprehensive measures in both long-term and short-term can be established by reporting such issues as specifically as possible, and diversified efforts should follow to support such measures.
Third, the most important elements in education are the immediate parties - teacher and student - who are directly involved in education in the field. Thus, reports on education should reflect the voice of such parties. Although presentation and analysis of policies made by governmental policy makers or experts introduced by materials from the government are important, efforts also should be put forth on reflecting the opinions in education fields. To this end, excellent cases in education fields and cases related to lifelong education should be found and introduced so that many can participate in lifelong education.