Social media in different contexts

In this assignment, a series of examples are presented in which social media have been used in various ways, including:

  1. To illustrate the changes in the practice of historians
  2. To teach history in a new way
  3. To spread fake history
  4. To document a historical event

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

6.a Ku Klux Klan Tweet | 20 Min

klan

Image credit: Kambree (@KamVTV) on Twitter

Article: “How social media spread a historical lie” by Jennifer Mendelsohn and Peter A. Shulman, 15 March 2018, The Washington Post. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20180315150517/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/03/15/how-social-media-spread-a-historical-lie/. Last accessed 27 August 2021.

Please summarize the main arguments put forward in the article (no more than three).

Then try to explain how this example applies to one ore more ways in which social media are used as outlined in the introduction. You can do this by writing a short text (150 words max.) or by recording yourself or by exchanging with your classmates/colleagues.

6.b Election Tweet | 25 Min

obama

Image credit: Barack Obama (@BarackObama) on Twitter

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 27 August 2021.

Please summarize the main arguments put forward in the article (no more than three).

Then try to explain how this example applies to one ore more ways in which social media are used as outlined in the introduction. You can do this by writing a short text (150 words max.) or by recording yourself or by exchanging with your classmates/colleagues.

6.c Collecting as much as possible | 15 Min

studentprotest

Image credit: Peter Arkle for the cover image of 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 27 August 2021.

Please summarize the main arguments put forward in the article (no more than three).

Then try to explain how this example applies to one ore more ways in which social media are used as outlined in the introduction. You can do this by writing a short text (150 words max.) or by recording yourself or by exchanging with your classmates/colleagues.

6.d Each day of the last month of the Second World War | 15 Min

digitalpast

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

Web page: About page of the “digitalpast” project. Available at: https://digitalpast.de/als-der-krieg-nach-hause-kam/digitalpast-english. Last accessed 27 August 2021.

Please summarize the main arguments put forward in the article (no more than three).

Then try to explain how this example applies to one ore more ways in which social media are used as outlined in the introduction. You can do this by writing a short text (150 words max.) or by recording yourself or by exchanging with your classmates/colleagues.