Abstract
This article concerns the dreams, practices and future for digital media for public history. Has the digital revolution changed the public history discipline? Thanks to characteristics such as flexibility, interactivity and capacity, digital media offer public historians new ways to present history and interact with the public. Wikipedia and the Children of the Lodz Gettho are two interesting public history cases that experiment with the potential of new media for public history. Looking at history online in general and the role public historians play there, some problems appear: a lack of historical narratives, a lack of self-criticism and digital illiteracy to name three. Based on some online field experience we distill some hands-on lessons concerning narratives, media and the public. Public historians have a lot of work ahead if they want to understand and use the Internet as a new arena for history. This article is part of the special issue 'Digital History'.
Highlights
This article concerns the dreams, practices and future for digital media for public history
Wikipedia and the Children of the Lodz Gettho are two interesting public history cases that experiment with the potential of new media for public history
Openness, interactivity and flexibility, public historians are among the early adopters of digital media and online platforms
Summary
This article concerns the dreams, practices and future for digital media for public history. Since the large-scale emergence of digital media at the end of the twentieth century public history, like all other historical sub-disciplines and methods, finds itself in a transitional state. Attracted to their capacity, openness, interactivity and flexibility, public historians are among the early adopters of digital media and online platforms. The question is whether public historians make good on the potential of digital media and if they are aware of their own on-line behaviour and the challenges that a digital public brings. Is there such a thing as ‘digital public history’ and how does it relate to ‘digital history’? How much does the digital behaviour of public historians differ from that of ‘academic’ historians? This article analyses the dreams and deeds of digital public history projects, formulates a number of lessons learned and casts an eye to the future of public history: will the present digital transition result in a fundamental transformation of the discipline, and if so, is that desirable?1
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