Doing media history in a digital age

Change and continuity in historiographical practices

Bibliographic Data

ID11268757
AuthorsHelle Strandgaard Jensen (0000-0002-8623-9586, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume38
Issue1
Pages119-128
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedia Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0163443715607846
OpenAlexW2275067368
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited15

This article explores the challenges which digital media brings into the field of media history. It starts out by examining prominent television historians’ understanding of digital archives as revolutionizing media historiography. These claims are examined by holding them up against texts that discuss wider issues in historiographical practices related to television history and transnational comparisons. This investigation is paired with my own experiences and the many methodological challenges I have encountered using digitalized sources for my new research. I end up concluding that digital archives in themselves make little difference to scholarly media history. In light of the lacking impact, I argue that we should study the cultural economy of these archives to better understand the corporate, political, and economical structures that govern their content and which also set the course for online digital processes that are active history-producing entities themselves

Digital media · Field (mathematics · Historiography · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · Computer Science · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · History · Law · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access