Museums and Media

The rapid transformation of museums over the last twenty years, both in Canada and around the world, has provoked numerous commentaries and interpretations. It has also fanned the flames of an argument that began three hundred years ago. The quarrel of the ancients and the moderns on the question of “museumfication” continues today. The quarrel is now not so much about problem of works and objects being placed in a kind of thesaurus, removed from their true context and accessible to only a limited public, but rather about the mummification of living traditions, intangible heritage, public spaces, and certain cities or their neighborhoods. The museum networks is growing extremely quickly, while at the same time becoming part of today's mass media universe. These changes are received enthusiastically by some, but are met with disapproval by others. Communication, theatrical presentation, the exchange and sharing of works, and the increased forging of links between institutions throughout the world have all contributed to making museums places of encounter and debate. As a result, museums now are among the liveliest and most productive cultural industries in the Western world. This hypermediatization has also brought about internal changes in museums. The goal of the museum has not necessarily been modified, but the ways of managing the institution have definitely undergone a transformation. What is the place of historians and researchers in this shifting world? Are they still welcome there

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Context (archaeology · Cultural heritage · Institution · Media studies · Political science · Presentation (obstetrics · Social science · Sociology · Archaeological Research and Protection · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · History · Museums and Cultural Heritage

• Causing a Ruckus

  Open Access•Matthew Hayes•Public history review•2018

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