Shifting the Balance of Power: Oral History and Public History in the Digital Era
-
Mary Larson
Abstract
Oral history and public history have been interconnected for many years, sharing multiple points of commonality, including a frequent interest in documenting under-documented communities. Both have brought different strengths to the table in their intersections, but it has been the digital turn in method and practice that has allowed these two areas of interest to complement each other most fully. Digital technologies have finally allowed oral history to be more fully public, and they have encouraged public history further toward the collaborative approach that oral history has often taken, fulfilling long-time aspirations on the part of both groups. The overall result of this evolution is a more holistic and contextualized treatment of the historical record along with a shift in power dynamics tantamount to the beginning of the “shared authority” moment. This essay is organized around some perceived joint concerns as a way of providing structure for the discussion. For both groups, there is an interest in presenting a more complete view of history in terms of perspectives, recipients, and mediation, and this comes across in three primary areas. First, there is concern about what/who is being documented: is the focus on capturing the stories of the elite, or is there more of an emphasis on gathering the perspectives of everyday people and underrepresented voices? Also, who is doing the documentation and driving the research agenda, and how do new digital tools shift what is feasible? Second, and less often considered, is the issue of who is involved in the interpretation of history - not just who gets to tell a story, but who controls how, when, or in what contexts the story is told? In the past, the work of curation and interpretation has been claimed largely by professionals, but new technologies have opened up that terrain to communities as well, so that there can be more public engagement in presenting the culture and history of everything from neighborhoods and organizations to traditionally underdocumented groups. The third and final shared area of concern revolves around who gets to hear the resulting stories: will only academics have access, or will the histories be presented to, andmade meaningful for, the general public? Evolving electronic platforms have certainly changed how documented history can be disseminated, and while class, gender, and other demographic issues still contribute to the existence of a not insignificant digital divide, obstacles of geography, mobility, and physical access are at least reduced through the use of online portals. The ability to make audio and video easily available through digital platforms has also changed the level of mediation inherent in that dissemination. As digital technologies lower the barriers for communities to document, interpret, and present their own histories, we are at an exciting turning point in the development of oral history and public history. Outreach and engagement may now evolve in very different ways as local groups have the potential to take a more active role in the documentation and representation of their stories, and as their autonomy in creating and curating projects grows, we may get to see some very creative approaches. Our roles as oral historians and public historians will almost certainly change, but as we become more aware of power imbalances and can collaborate more meaningfully with communities on their own terms, the result will surely be a richer historical record.
Abstract
Oral history and public history have been interconnected for many years, sharing multiple points of commonality, including a frequent interest in documenting under-documented communities. Both have brought different strengths to the table in their intersections, but it has been the digital turn in method and practice that has allowed these two areas of interest to complement each other most fully. Digital technologies have finally allowed oral history to be more fully public, and they have encouraged public history further toward the collaborative approach that oral history has often taken, fulfilling long-time aspirations on the part of both groups. The overall result of this evolution is a more holistic and contextualized treatment of the historical record along with a shift in power dynamics tantamount to the beginning of the “shared authority” moment. This essay is organized around some perceived joint concerns as a way of providing structure for the discussion. For both groups, there is an interest in presenting a more complete view of history in terms of perspectives, recipients, and mediation, and this comes across in three primary areas. First, there is concern about what/who is being documented: is the focus on capturing the stories of the elite, or is there more of an emphasis on gathering the perspectives of everyday people and underrepresented voices? Also, who is doing the documentation and driving the research agenda, and how do new digital tools shift what is feasible? Second, and less often considered, is the issue of who is involved in the interpretation of history - not just who gets to tell a story, but who controls how, when, or in what contexts the story is told? In the past, the work of curation and interpretation has been claimed largely by professionals, but new technologies have opened up that terrain to communities as well, so that there can be more public engagement in presenting the culture and history of everything from neighborhoods and organizations to traditionally underdocumented groups. The third and final shared area of concern revolves around who gets to hear the resulting stories: will only academics have access, or will the histories be presented to, andmade meaningful for, the general public? Evolving electronic platforms have certainly changed how documented history can be disseminated, and while class, gender, and other demographic issues still contribute to the existence of a not insignificant digital divide, obstacles of geography, mobility, and physical access are at least reduced through the use of online portals. The ability to make audio and video easily available through digital platforms has also changed the level of mediation inherent in that dissemination. As digital technologies lower the barriers for communities to document, interpret, and present their own histories, we are at an exciting turning point in the development of oral history and public history. Outreach and engagement may now evolve in very different ways as local groups have the potential to take a more active role in the documentation and representation of their stories, and as their autonomy in creating and curating projects grows, we may get to see some very creative approaches. Our roles as oral historians and public historians will almost certainly change, but as we become more aware of power imbalances and can collaborate more meaningfully with communities on their own terms, the result will surely be a richer historical record.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1: Historiography
- The Historiographical Foundations of Digital Public History 17
- Crowdsourcing and User Generated Content: The Raison d’Être of Digital Public History 35
- Sharing Authority in Online Collaborative Public History Practices 49
- Shifting the Balance of Power: Oral History and Public History in the Digital Era 61
- Digital Public Archaeology 77
- Identities – a historical look at online memory and identity issues 87
- Digital Environmental Humanities 97
- Combining Values of Museums and Digital Culture in Digital Public History 107
- Open Access: an opportunity to redesign scholarly communication in history 121
- Past and Present in Digital Public History 131
- Digital Hermeneutics: The Reflexive Turn in Digital Public History? 139
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Part 2: Contexts
- Archivists as Peers in Digital Public History 149
- History Museums: Enhancing Audience Engagement through Digital Technologies 165
- Interactive Museum & Exhibitions in Digital Public History Projects and Practices: An Overview and the Unusual Case of M9 Museum 175
- Digital Public History in Libraries 185
- Publishing Public History in the Digital Age 199
- “Learning Public History by doing Public History” 211
- Spaces: What’s at Stake in Their Digital Public Histories? 223
- Digital Public History in the United States 235
- Technology and Historic Preservation: Documentation and Storytelling 243
- Social Media: Snapshots in Public History 259
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Part 3: Best Practices
- Curation: Toward a New Ethic of Digital Public History 277
- Data Visualization for History 291
- Mapping and Maps in Digital and Public History 301
- Gaming and Digital Public History 309
- Individuals in the Crowd: Privacy, Online Participatory Curation, and the Public Historian as Private Citizen 317
- Building Communities, Reconciling Histories: Can We Make a More Honest History? 327
- Cybermemorials: Remembrance and Places of Memory in the Digital Age 337
- Living History: Performing the Past 349
- Activist Digital Public History 359
- Digital Public History: Family History and Genealogy 369
- Digital Personal Memories: The Archiving of the Self and Public History 377
- Planning with the Public: How to Co-develop Digital Public History Projects? 385
- As Seen through Smartphones: An Evolution of Historic Information Embedment 395
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Part 4: Technology, Media, Data and Metadata
- What does it Meme? Public History in the Internet Memes Era 405
- Historical GIS 419
- Content Management 431
- Linked Open Data & Metadata 439
- Big Data and Public History 447
- Modeling Data Complexity in Public History and Cultural Heritage 459
- History and Video Games 475
- Historians as Digital Storytellers: The Digital Shift in Narrative Practices for Public Historians 485
- The Audiovisual Dimension & the Digital Turn in Public History Practices 495
- Digital Public History and Photography 505
- Exploring Large-Scale Digital Archives – Opportunities and Limits to Use Unsupervised Machine Learning for the Extraction of Semantics 517
- Infographics and Public History 531
- List of Contributors 545
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1: Historiography
- The Historiographical Foundations of Digital Public History 17
- Crowdsourcing and User Generated Content: The Raison d’Être of Digital Public History 35
- Sharing Authority in Online Collaborative Public History Practices 49
- Shifting the Balance of Power: Oral History and Public History in the Digital Era 61
- Digital Public Archaeology 77
- Identities – a historical look at online memory and identity issues 87
- Digital Environmental Humanities 97
- Combining Values of Museums and Digital Culture in Digital Public History 107
- Open Access: an opportunity to redesign scholarly communication in history 121
- Past and Present in Digital Public History 131
- Digital Hermeneutics: The Reflexive Turn in Digital Public History? 139
-
Part 2: Contexts
- Archivists as Peers in Digital Public History 149
- History Museums: Enhancing Audience Engagement through Digital Technologies 165
- Interactive Museum & Exhibitions in Digital Public History Projects and Practices: An Overview and the Unusual Case of M9 Museum 175
- Digital Public History in Libraries 185
- Publishing Public History in the Digital Age 199
- “Learning Public History by doing Public History” 211
- Spaces: What’s at Stake in Their Digital Public Histories? 223
- Digital Public History in the United States 235
- Technology and Historic Preservation: Documentation and Storytelling 243
- Social Media: Snapshots in Public History 259
-
Part 3: Best Practices
- Curation: Toward a New Ethic of Digital Public History 277
- Data Visualization for History 291
- Mapping and Maps in Digital and Public History 301
- Gaming and Digital Public History 309
- Individuals in the Crowd: Privacy, Online Participatory Curation, and the Public Historian as Private Citizen 317
- Building Communities, Reconciling Histories: Can We Make a More Honest History? 327
- Cybermemorials: Remembrance and Places of Memory in the Digital Age 337
- Living History: Performing the Past 349
- Activist Digital Public History 359
- Digital Public History: Family History and Genealogy 369
- Digital Personal Memories: The Archiving of the Self and Public History 377
- Planning with the Public: How to Co-develop Digital Public History Projects? 385
- As Seen through Smartphones: An Evolution of Historic Information Embedment 395
-
Part 4: Technology, Media, Data and Metadata
- What does it Meme? Public History in the Internet Memes Era 405
- Historical GIS 419
- Content Management 431
- Linked Open Data & Metadata 439
- Big Data and Public History 447
- Modeling Data Complexity in Public History and Cultural Heritage 459
- History and Video Games 475
- Historians as Digital Storytellers: The Digital Shift in Narrative Practices for Public Historians 485
- The Audiovisual Dimension & the Digital Turn in Public History Practices 495
- Digital Public History and Photography 505
- Exploring Large-Scale Digital Archives – Opportunities and Limits to Use Unsupervised Machine Learning for the Extraction of Semantics 517
- Infographics and Public History 531
- List of Contributors 545
