Social Media in different contexts

In this assignment, a series of examples is presented in which a social medium has been used to:

  1. Illustrate the changes in the practice of historians,
  2. Teach history in a new way,
  3. Spread fake history,
  4. Document a historical event

For each example below, write a short text (150 words max.) about how it applies to one or more of the four cases above as well as what arguments are put forward by the corresponding article.

6.a Tweet - Ku Klux Klan

klan

Image credit: Kambree (@KamVTV) - https://twitter.com/KamVTV/status/970134790098714625

Article: “How social media spread a historical lie” by Jennifer Mendelsohn and Peter A. Shulman, 15 March 2018, The Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/03/15/how-social-media-spread-a-historical-lie/. Last accessed 10 May 2021.

Arguments that are made:

1.
2.
3.

6.b Tweet elections

obama

Image credit: Barack Obama (@BarackObama) - https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/266031293945503744

Article: “Historical Understanding in the Quantum Age” by Joshua Sternfeld, published 20 January 2014 and revised August 2014, Journal of Digital Humanities. Available at: http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/3-2/historical-understanding-in-the-quantum-age/. Last accessed 10 May 2021.

Arguments that are made:

1.
2.
3.

6.c Collecting as much as possible

studentprotest

Image credit: Peter Arkle for the 6 June 2018 article “Born Digital: How Social Media and Paperless Offices are Reshaping the University Archives” from the Princeton Alumni Weekly.

Article: “Born Digital: How Social Media and Paperless Offices are Reshaping the University Archives” by Brett Tomlinson, 6 June 2018, Princeton Alumni Weekly. Available at: https://paw.princeton.edu/article/born-digital-how-social-media-and-paperless-offices-are-reshaping-university-archives. Last accessed 10 May 2021.

Arguments that are made:

1.
2.
3.

6.d Tweet - Each day of the last month of the Second World War.

digitalpast

Image credit: Screenshot of the “digitalpast” project homepage taken on a desktop computer on 14 April 2021 - https://digitalpast.de/

Web page: About page of the “digitalpast” project. Available at: https://digitalpast.de/als-der-krieg-nach-hause-kam/digitalpast-english/. Last accessed 10 May 2021.

Arguments that are made:

1.
2.
3.