A new media age has arisen in response to the incredible developments in high-tech electronic media, and it is fundamentally changing the ways in which knowledge and information are aquired. All knowledge is in the process of being converted into either electronic or video media, after which it will be stored in a computer network that anyone can access and use, and that connects the entire world. In the future, the production of knowledge will also be governed by the choices of consumers.
In schools, the site of education, textbooks, the official instrument for the transmission of knowledge and information, are also being reevaluated, and it is thought that they must be redeveloped in order to meet the demands of this new media age. In particular, when considering the methods of acquiring and recognizing knowledge and information of a new generation of learners who find greater interest and stimulation in electronic and video media, the development of hyper-texts, or hyper-media textbook formats, and multimedia reorganization is urgent.
Art history, which uses visual materials, has certain relative advantages over other fields in the new media or video age, but the debates on textbook development that accompany the changes this age brings are still in an incomplete state. This paper, prior to actual discussions of texbook development, explored the implementation of new content, which is linked to the research directions and results of academia. Among those areas explored, as one part of the search for new content concerning the narrative of modern Korean art history, it critically examined the junior high and high school text books, which have been in use since 2001 and 2002, respectively, as well as the contents of those general introductions that are used as textbooks for undergraduate and graduate students.