Saturday, January 02, 2010

History Does Not Exist In A Vacuum

History does not exist in a vacuum. The media that record history, also shape that history.

As someone who works in Social Media, and as a historian of sorts, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how media itself is a part of history: a shaper of history that is often ignored. My background is in radio and I’ve read plenty of books about both history and radio (and the history of radio!) to know that it’s rare for historians to give media its proper place.

Recent events have spurred me on to revive this blog and, for at least a while, look at specific events in our history as delivered to us via various media. In most cases I’ll be talking about radio, since I spent a good many years studying and analyzing the history of radio and its place in history.

In many cases, the media that records our history is an important player in that history.

So stay tuned...I hope you enjoy the ride. This blog, as it takes a new shape, is mostly for me, as I research a number of ongoing projects and use this space to give voice to some of that research. I'll be writing about a lot of topics: advertising, sports, aviation, war, disaster, life in general...but all in relation to the media that reported on and influenced them. And hopefully you'll find it interesting and learn something along the way.

1 comment:

Jeremy Walter said...

Looking forward to the Resurgence of Brick Throwing.