Communication and Collective Memory

Abstract

The term “collective memory” refers to the shared meaning a group of people gives the past. Research on the phenomenon is highly interdisciplinary; collective memory is studied in at least five major academic disciplines: communication, sociology, psychology, history, and anthropology. It is also studied around the globe, with major research literatures in French, German, and Hebrew as well as in English, and case studies ranging across an even greater diversity of communities. The literature’s richness has given rise to several terms referring to essentially the same phenomenon: shared memory, public memory, social memory, and cultural memory. What distinguishes work on collective memory and communication is its emphasis on the production and circulation of shared meaning rather than the specific discipline in which the work is produced. Scholarship in collective memory usually adopts a social-constructionist perspective. Meanings assigned to the past are dynamic and commonly influenced by current circumstances. Scholars explore the limits of social construction in the context of past events that actually occurred, debate the ethics of representation, and theorize the social and technological forces affecting the production and circulation of shared meaning. However, critiques of representation grounded solely in their historical inaccuracies have largely been abandoned as theoretically unproductive. This article offers an overview of the field’s richness rather than an exhaustive listing of all the research that has been done. It is not limited to work produced by communication scholars but instead includes research generated in a variety of disciplines that speaks to the ways we develop and convey shared meanings for the past. Thus, it identifies literature flowing from differing conceptualizations of collective memory and considers the communicative aspects of a variety of social objects and practices, from film and journalism to memorials and museums. It also includes work on how collective memory functions in social life. Embracing the global nature of scholarship on collective memory, studies conducted in communities around the world are included. However, only work available in English is included, which means some evolving European approaches to communication and collective memory may be absent or referred to in secondary sources.