A new methodological quest to evaluate South Korean digital diplomacy in US government web domains

The study investigates the effectiveness of South Korea's digital diplomacy in the context of the ongoing Dokdo/Takeshima Islands dispute with Japan, using the U.S. government's web domains as a case study. The selection of the U.S. is justified by its historical influence on modern public diplomacy and its significant foreign policy impact on both Korea and Japan. Existing research on digital public diplomacy is largely qualitative, lacking quantitative methodologies to analyze the vast data available on digital platforms. This study aims to address this gap by developing a novel methodological framework that combines web impact studies and semantic network analysis to examine the representation of the Dokdo/Takeshima issue on U.S. government websites. The study seeks to answer three research questions: RQ1: What is a methodological innovation that uses web archiving to objectively measure the impact of digital diplomacy? RQ2: What are the networked structures of U.S.-mediated archived web materials on Dokdo, and how do these reflect South Korea's digital diplomacy strategies? RQ3: What improvements do the analysis results of archived web materials suggest in Korea's digital diplomatic strategy?

The literature review explores the digitalization of public diplomacy, tracing its evolution from propaganda to sophisticated strategic communication. It examines different conceptualizations of digital diplomacy, including "Public Diplomacy 2.0," "Virtual Diplomacy," and "Digital Diplomacy." The review highlights the growing importance of digital platforms in shaping public opinion and influencing foreign policy. It discusses the role of digital diplomacy in projecting soft power and national branding. The review also examines the implications of the term "digital" in the context of public diplomacy, emphasizing the need to distinguish between virtual spaces, technological tools, and physical conditions related to communication. Existing research on South Korea's digital diplomacy is reviewed, focusing on government initiatives, digital infrastructure, and the activities of non-state actors such as VANK and the Dokdo Research Institute. The literature review concludes by emphasizing the limitations of current research and the need for more quantitative methodologies.

The study employs a novel methodology combining web impact studies and semantic network analysis. Data was collected from the Wayback Machine, focusing on the ".gov" domain and using the keyword "Dokdo." A total of 150 web pages were analyzed after removing duplicates and irrelevant content. Web Impact Reports were generated using Webometrics Analyst 2.0, analyzing URLs on a per-domain basis to identify the sources of information. Semantic network analysis, using Textom software, was conducted to examine keyword frequency, TF-IDF values, and centrality measures to map the relationships between words in the collected web pages. CONCOR analysis was employed to identify clusters of semantically related words. The methodology involved using web crawling techniques to gather data from the Wayback Machine, and Python scripts were used to process and extract URLs and other metadata from the collected web pages. The choice of the Wayback Machine as a data source is justified by its vast archive of web pages and its ability to provide historical snapshots of websites. The quantitative analysis methods of webometrics are used to provide an objective and scalable approach to analyzing the web-based data collected from various US government websites. The semantic network analysis part aims to uncover the underlying relationships and themes within the textual content of the collected web pages.

The analysis reveals a significant dominance of the "Japan Media Highlights" (jmh.usembassy.gov) domain, operated by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, accounting for 86.5% of the URLs collected. This website primarily features news reports, editorials, and expert opinions related to Dokdo/Takeshima, demonstrating a more active Japanese digital public diplomacy presence. The U.S. Department of State websites had a much smaller number of URLs. The study finds a disproportionate focus on "Takeshima" compared to "Dokdo" in the collected web pages. Semantic network analysis reveals strong connections between "Takeshima," "Japan," and related keywords, while "Dokdo" is less prominently featured. CONCOR analysis identifies four word clusters, illustrating the politicization of the Dokdo issue and the comparatively stronger influence of "Takeshima" in the U.S. online space. The analysis of information sources shows a slight advantage for Japan, especially concerning news reports. While South Korea had briefings related to Dokdo stemming from visits by U.S. officials, these are outnumbered by the overall Japanese presence. This emphasizes the imbalance in the digital narrative surrounding the territorial dispute within the U.S. government web space. These findings are visualized using various graphs and tables to illustrate the dominance of specific domains and keywords, as well as the relationships between them.

The findings indicate a significant disparity between South Korea and Japan's digital diplomacy efforts within the U.S. government's online space. The predominance of Japanese-focused content suggests that Japan has more effectively leveraged digital platforms to shape the narrative surrounding the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute. The limited presence of South Korean-authored materials highlights potential deficiencies in South Korea's digital diplomacy strategy, particularly in targeting key online spaces that influence international discourse. The study suggests South Korea needs to adopt a more proactive and comprehensive digital diplomacy approach, engaging various platforms and creating more substantial content to counter the existing narrative. The research underscores the importance of interactive media public diplomacy and strategic media engagement to effectively advocate for its position on the Dokdo/Takeshima issue. The findings highlight the need for South Korea to develop a more robust and targeted digital diplomacy strategy, focusing on influential platforms and creating content in local languages, similar to the Australian model presented in the literature review.

This study provides a novel methodological approach for evaluating digital diplomacy, specifically examining South Korea's efforts in the U.S. government web space. The analysis reveals a significant gap in South Korea's online presence compared to Japan regarding the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute. This underscores the need for more strategic and targeted digital diplomacy initiatives. Future research could expand the analysis to include other diplomatic issues and social media platforms, utilizing larger datasets for more robust conclusions. Further research could also explore the effectiveness of different digital diplomacy strategies and their impact on public opinion.

The study's limitations include the relatively small number of URLs analyzed, despite being a significant number in the context of web archiving. Future research with larger datasets would strengthen the findings and enhance generalizability. The focus on the U.S. government web space limits the scope of the analysis, and future studies could expand to other countries and platforms. The analysis primarily relied on textual content; future studies might consider visual data analysis to broaden the scope of findings.