Technology, Culture and Public History: The Digital Ecosystem as a Habitat for History

技术和经济学等领域长期以来一直重视“数字生态系统”的概念，该概念“重新定义了公共领域和私人领域之间的界限”（世界经济论坛（WEF） 2019），作为理解信息如何在不同的数字平台和媒介上流通和参与的一种方式（例如Colugnati等人）。2010年，世界经济论坛2007年，Feijóo等人2009年，Darking等人2008年，Nachira 2004年)。Covid-19加深了人们对综合数字基础设施的理解，这些基础设施提供了对多个相互关联的知识领域的看似无缝的按需访问，已成为当代社会日常生活的重要组成部分（例如Lazazzara等人）。2020, Tofalvy & Barna 2020, Henry 2021， Susanto等人2021，Merry等人2020)。迄今为止，很少有学者深入分析这些通信的持续发展是如何在不同文化领域重塑与过去的社会交往的。批判性地参与现有的数字生态系统跨学科文献，我的研究将使用精心挑选的研究来调查历史信息在媒介内数字平台上传播的方式。我的硕士论文已经成为这方面的试点，质疑Netflix采用的机制，以促进和鼓励不同模式的跨平台公众参与《王冠》。将这一分析扩展到其他案例中，将促使人们对电影、电视、社交媒体、遗产和公共记忆之间的分歧进行批判性评估，这些分歧在现有文献中很常见(例如：“媒体事件”Garde-Hansen 2011、2016；“跨学科”Burgoyne 2003, 2008；“流媒体平台”McDonald 2016, Baker & Wiatrowski 2017，“社交媒体”A. Hoskins（主编）2017；“电视”Gray & Bell 2012；《记忆研究》Cubitt 2014, 2018；“数字遗产”（Bowen & Giannini 2019）。关键问题包括：我们如何才能在用户主导和生产者推动的不同类型的数字媒体上最好地批判性地参与历史的呈现？-数字历史内容的生产者和用户之间的机械关系是什么？这如何影响用户在不同的数字环境中对待、接受和理解关于过去的材料？-数字媒体如何回应这些不同的需求/动机/基础设施/参与者，受众之间又有何不同？-全球社会经济和政治发展如何影响公共历史在“数字生态系统”中的循环方式？一个有意多样化的分析案例研究集将探索一套不同的互动设置由数字媒体的运动。举三个例子-研究1（“汉密尔顿”）将跟踪从音乐剧到视频流到社交媒体轰动主义的历史内容的重新配置；研究2（伊娃）。“故事”项目将探讨以大屠杀为主题的社交媒体内容中传统教育和纪念策略的转变；研究3（“#BLM”）将展示如何在通过社交媒体专门促进的跨国政治运动中动员历史理解。优先考虑公众的声音是该研究的基石，该研究将利用社交媒体（如Twitter、TikTok）的参与以及传统的口述历史方法（如公众焦点小组、访谈），以获得对数字领域历史知识生产者和消费者的实践、经验和动机的实践和理论见解。研究技术变革与历史知识的生产、流通和消费之间的关系，是当代文化史的一个重要方面。最终，它有可能鼓励历史学家自己如何在今天的数字文化互动中发挥参与者的作用。

Fields such as technology and economics have long valued the concept of 'digital ecosystems' which "redefine the boundaries between the public and private spheres" (World Economic Forum (WEF) 2019) as a way to understand how information circulates and is engaged with across different digital platforms and mediums (e.g. Colugnati et al. (eds.) 2010, WEF 2007, Feijóo et al. 2009, Darking et al. 2008, Nachira 2004). Covid-19 has reinforced understandings of just how essential integrated digital infrastructures, offering seemingly seamless on-demand access to multiple interconnecting realms of knowledge, have become to daily life in contemporary societies (e.g. Lazazzara et al. (eds.) 2020, Tofalvy & Barna 2020, Henry 2021, Susanto et al. 2021, Merry et al. 2020). To date, few scholars have analysed in any depth the ways in which these ongoing developments in communications are remodelling social engagements with the past across different realms of culture.Engaging critically with existing interdisciplinary literatures on the digital ecosystem, my research will use carefully selected studies to investigate the ways in which historical information traverses intra-medium digital platforms. My MA thesis has already served as a pilot for this, interrogating the mechanisms employed by Netflix to facilitate and encourage different modes of cross-platform public engagement with 'The Crown'. Extending this analysis through other cases will prompt critical evaluation of the divisions between, for example, film, television, social media, heritage and public memory, which are common in existing literature (e.g. 'media events' Garde-Hansen 2011, 2016; 'interdisciplinarity' Burgoyne 2003, 2008; 'streaming platforms' McDonald 2016, Baker & Wiatrowski 2017, 'social media' A. Hoskins (ed.) 2017; 'television' Gray & Bell 2012; 'memory studies' Cubitt 2014, 2018; 'digital heritage' Bowen & Giannini 2019).Key questions include:- How can we best engage critically with the presentation of history across different types of digital media which are both user-led and producer-pushed?- What is the mechanical relationship between producers of digital history content and users, and how does this affect how users treat, receive and understand material about the past across different digital habitats?- How does digital media respond to these different needs/motivations/ infrastructures/actors and how does this differ between audiences? - How do global socio-economic and political developments influence the ways in which public history circulates within the 'digital ecosystem'?An intentionally diverse set of analytical case studies will each explore a different set of interactions set in motion by digital media. To give three examples - study 1 ('Hamilton') will track the reconfiguration of historical content in the passage from musical theatre to video streaming to social media sensationalism; study 2 (the 'Eva.Stories' project) will interrogate the transformation of traditional educational and commemorative strategies in Holocaust-themed social media content; study 3 ('#BLM') will show how historical understanding is mobilised in a transnational political movement exclusively facilitated through social media. Prioritising the public voice is a cornerstone of the research, which will use social media (e.g. Twitter, TikTok) engagement as well as traditional oral history methodologies (e.g public focus groups, interviews) to gain practical, as well as theoretical, insights into the practices, experiences and motivations of producers and consumers of historical knowledge in the digital arena. Investigating the relationships between technological change and the production, circulation and consumption of historical knowledge addresses an important dimension of contemporary cultural history. Ultimately, it has the potential to encourage historians in how they themselves can function as participants in today's digital cultural interactions.