How do the news media, academia, and the public view the metaverse? Evidence from South Korea

Youngju Kim and Bumsoo Kim

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2024, vol. 198, issue C

Abstract: Despite frequent mentions of the “metaverse” in news reports, academic studies, and individual discourse, there have been few systematic studies that explore the conception of the metaverse in peer-reviewed articles, news reports, and individuals' digital expressions. This study examined the aggregate perceptions and knowledge of multiple audiences—news media, academics, and the public—about the metaverse. After collecting peer-reviewed articles, news reports, and Twitter users' posts about the metaverse from 2020 to 2022, we conducted a comparative content analysis to identify characteristics of metaverse topics, research/news reporting areas, research methods, and public opinion about the metaverse. The findings show that academia has investigated various research topics and areas related to the metaverse using various methodologies, while the news media and the public focused more on business/industry trends and specific metaverse platforms. Through the comparative content analysis, we also identified commonalities and differences in how these are described or identified across peer-reviewed journals, news reports, and social media comments.

Keywords: Metaverse; Social shaping of technology; Content analysis; Text analysis; Network analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162523006650
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:198:y:2024:i:c:s0040162523006650

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122980

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().