Archives and Anarchy

I have finished my second and third weeks as a Public History Masters student and the theme of this weeks blog is archives and anarchy, not because I am a closet anarchist, but because the discussion of e-history, disinformation and pseudohistory has made me realize that the online world of history can be complete anarchy.

E-history is a term created by Jason Steinhauer in his book History, Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past. He defines e-history as "discrete media products that package an element, or elements, of the past for consumption on the social Web and which try to leverage the social Web in order to gain visibility." We discussed several of his ideas in our Digital Public History course, and although we did not agree with all of Steinhauer's ideas, I agree that some of the history related content online can be problematic, especially when the purpose of a post is to gain visibility or to push a certain political agenda. Steinhauer also discusses how e-history content is created in the world of social media where posts are user-centric, data-driven and instantly gratifying which clashes with the world of academic history which is time consuming and always evolving. There is certainly harm in some historical content which is made to be instantly gratifying, such as false click-bait style posts, but we also looked at historical content online that was short, and light hearted and also instantly gratifying.

Take a look at this tweet of a picture of an oddly thick ram which proved to be a very successful way to advertise for the Museum of English Rural Life https://twitter.com/TheMERL/status/983341970318938112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E983341970318938112%7Ctwgr%5Ef368e446fdb62bf56f37a6d314a141a2ff0de944%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fmuseum-of-english-rural-life-absolute-unit

This tweet was effective because everybody loves animals and it was able to reach a large audience, it gained over 100,000 likes and I am sure not all of those people are passionate about rural English life. Maybe one day all the pictures I take of my cat will go viral...

This week in Digital Public History we discussed pseudohistory and disinformation which complemented our discussions on e-history quite well. We discussed Ancient Aliens and some ridiculous conspiracy theories such as the flat earth theory and the lost city of Atlantis. Although these things are quite entertaining to look into, I myself am guilty of watching quite a few conspiracy theory documentaries, they can be examples of pseudohistory which can have a dark side as they can sometimes justify racism or push problematic political agendas. The reason pseudohistory is able to thrive is because like social media content, pseudohistory is interesting, marketable and ultimately instantly gratifying. The next time you are cruising cable tv and come across the History Network, put on one of these Ancient Alien type of shows and try and catch some of the problematic characteristics of pseudohistory.

Onto the archives segment of my archives and anarchy blog post... This week we had the pleasure of visiting the Western Archives for a workshop on accessing primary sources and a tour of their storage facility. I learned that the city of London does not have their own archives and the University of Western actually receives most of the city related archival material such as city directories, maps, photos, architectural records and much more. This is helpful for me as one of our main projects for HIS 9800 is related to researching a heritage property in London and I will be needing access to all this archival material. At the end of the workshop we were given a tour of the storage facility of the Archives which was absolutely mind blowing for a former Collection's Manager who is very fascinated and pleased with a well organized collections space. It was also not surprising to hear that they are running out of space, as I have witnessed firsthand the difficulties of creating space in a museum storage facility.

Sources:

Steinhauer, History, Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).