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

The emergence of the Internet has transformed diplomacy and public diplomacy, with digital technologies and platforms becoming central to international relations. The ongoing Dokdo/Takeshima territorial dispute between South Korea and Japan illustrates how states advance sovereignty claims via government-run web resources and media, seeking international support. Existing research on digital public diplomacy is largely qualitative, with limited quantitative approaches leveraging large-scale digital data. This study addresses that gap by combining web impact studies and semantic network analysis to examine how Dokdo-related content is stored and represented in U.S. government web domains, a critical benchmark given the U.S. influence on both Korea and Japan. The study targets the government domain to inform information intervention technologies and understand non-state actor influence. The primary research questions are: 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?

Digitalization of public diplomacy is closely tied to Web 2.0 and the rise of new forms of engagement, including soft power, strategic communication, and national branding. While terms such as Public Diplomacy 2.0, Virtual/Net Diplomacy, and Digital Diplomacy are used, some argue for the concept of digitalized public diplomacy, highlighting changes to norms, values, practices, and organizational structures. Digital diplomacy operates at MFA and embassy levels, tailoring messages to local audiences. For South Korea, research indicates strong digital infrastructure but a lack of strategic planning and full realization of digital diplomacy potential. Studies have explored social media engagement, showing institutional management of reciprocal communication and soft power projection, but also instances where digital diplomacy targets domestic rather than foreign audiences. Analyses of thousands of public diplomacy projects (2018–2022) show a focus on one-way information dissemination with limited digital technology-based activities, suggesting specialization in Web 2.0 rather than Web 1.0. Non-state actors (e.g., VANK) play significant roles in public diplomacy, engaging in activities such as correcting misinformation, education, and advocacy around Dokdo/Takeshima. Academic and media initiatives (e.g., Dokdo Research Institute; documentaries) also contribute. Theoretical discussions emphasize the network society, the need to parse the meanings of “digital” (virtual, technological, physical facets), and practice-based adaptation and adoption of digital tools by MFAs and embassies.

Design: An expanded webometrics model using web archiving combined with web impact research and semantic network analysis was employed to address RQ1–RQ3. Data sources: U.S. government web domain (.gov) materials accessed via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Collection strategy: Searched for the keyword “Dokdo” in the Wayback Machine. Initial search (Jan 27, 2023) returned 299 results. Full collection of archived webpages conducted Jan 29 and 31, 2023 using Internet Download Manager (IDM) to download HTML files. Focused on .gov domain pages; attempted “Takeshima” but excluded due to substantial overlap with “Dokdo” results. Data processing and verification: Manually reviewed collected pages to remove duplicates/unrelated content; used Wayback Machine’s versioning to avoid duplicates when content unchanged. An in-house Python script extracted URLs from IDM-downloaded pages for a domain-based Web Impact Report. Analytical sample: 1,206 pages collected; 150 webpages retained for analysis after filtering; 141 unique URLs extracted for domain-level analysis. Analytic components: 1) Web Impact Research: Conducted in Webometrics Analyst 2.0 to compile URL-based domain statistics and domain dominance/occupancy. 2) Semantic Network Analysis: Text mining of webpage content to compute keyword frequencies, TF-IDF, and centrality; performed CONCOR clustering to identify blocks based on co-occurrence correlations; visualized networks using UCINET. Tools: Wayback Machine (archive.org), IDM, Python (URL extraction), Webometrics Analyst 2.0, Textom (Korean text mining solution), UCINET. Outcome measures: Domain frequency and type distributions; keyword TF-IDF; network metrics (density, diameter, clustering, modularity); CONCOR-based clusters.

• Corpus and URLs: Of 1,206 collected pages, 150 webpages were analyzed; 141 URLs were extracted for domain analysis. - Domain dominance: jmh.usembassy.gov (Japan Media Highlights, operated by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo) hosted 122 URLs (86.5%). www.state.gov had 7 URLs (5.0%); usinfo.state.gov had 2; agricola.nal.usda.gov 3; petitions.whitehouse.gov 2; korea.usembassy.gov 2; and several others with 1 each. The U.S. Embassy in Japan had far more Dokdo-related pages than the U.S. Embassy in South Korea. - Content types (N=150): News dominated (122; general 96, editorials 12, features 10, polls 4). Briefings totaled 12 (briefings 5, press conferences 5, hearings 2). Others were 7 (introductions 4, petitions 2, search list 1). - Information sources by country (n=152 items tallied across types): News—Korea 59, Japan 67, China 3, U.S. 1, Russia 1, Taiwan 1, Vietnam 1; Briefings—Korea 5, U.S. 7; Others—U.S. 7. Japan had slightly more sources than South Korea. - Text mining and TF-IDF (top words): Despite searching with “Dokdo,” “Takeshima” appeared more frequently and had high TF-IDF (e.g., Korea 1329 freq, TF-IDF 1799.38; Japan 1164, 1673.60; U.S. 701, 1360.05; Takeshima 255, 698.47; Dokdo 192, 572.21). - Network metrics among top 30 words: Very high connectivity—density 0.995; diameter 2; average degree 28.867; average weighted degree 4786.133; average clustering coefficient 0.996; average path length 1.005; modularity 0.09. - Semantic associations: The “Dokdo” node clustered with Korea/Japan/China and political terms; “Takeshima” clustered with U.S., world, think, talk, security, Tokyo—indicating politicization and greater influence of the term “Takeshima” in U.S.-mediated archived materials. - Illustrative content: The dominant jmh domain included editorials such as “South Korea should not bring territorial issues to the Olympics” (Feb 7, 2018), reflecting narrative framing in U.S. Embassy–curated Japanese media highlights. - Overall: U.S.-mediated archived web materials on Dokdo are mainly news-centric and reflect stronger Japanese digital public diplomacy presence than Korean within U.S. government web spaces.

The findings directly address RQ2 by revealing a network structure dominated by a U.S. Embassy in Japan domain (jmh.usembassy.gov), indicating that Japan’s narratives and media outputs about Dokdo/Takeshima are more visibly stored and curated within U.S. government web archives than South Korea’s. The higher prevalence and TF-IDF of “Takeshima” over “Dokdo” implies stronger Japanese discursive influence in these spaces. For RQ1, the study demonstrates a viable methodological innovation: combining web archiving–based collection with webometric impact analysis and semantic network analysis provides objective, reproducible measures of digital diplomacy presence and framing. In relation to RQ3, the results suggest South Korea’s digital public diplomacy is underrepresented or misaligned with influential channels (e.g., embassy-operated media and topical repositories) in the U.S. domain. Policy review highlights gaps in Korea’s second basic plan for public diplomacy—emphasis on content production and platforms without sufficient strategic, region-specific, interactive, or evaluative components. Benchmarking against Australia’s DFAT illustrates more systematic regional social media strategies. The study argues Korea should adopt interactive, transmedia, and government-level media diplomacy approaches—beyond one-way promotion—to embed its positions within influential international digital infrastructures and archives.

This study proposes and applies a framework using web archiving, webometrics, and semantic network analysis to evaluate digital diplomacy effectiveness. Applied to the Dokdo/Takeshima case within U.S. government web domains, the analysis reveals a strong dominance of content curated by the U.S. Embassy in Japan and comparatively limited South Korean presence. The results underscore strategic deficiencies in South Korea’s digital public diplomacy: insufficient embedding of narratives in influential U.S. digital spaces and archives. The study recommends sustained production and dissemination of web resources, interactive and transmedia campaigns, and medium- to long-term strategies aligned with target platforms and institutional channels to improve visibility and advocacy effectiveness. Future work should extend analyses to social media platforms, broaden issues beyond Dokdo, and scale datasets to strengthen generalizability and evaluation.

The analyzed URLs and webpages do not constitute large-scale big data relative to the broader web. Most collected data were media/news, which may constrain representativeness of other content types. Future studies should integrate social media platform data, expand to additional diplomatic issues and domains, and increase temporal and topical scope to validate and generalize findings.