Journalism, History and the Contorted Nature of Memory
Journalism, History and the Contorted Nature of Memory
Janice Hume, "Journalism, History and the Contorted Nature of Memory," The Routledge Companion to American Journalism History, Melita M. Garza, Michael Fuhlhage and Tracy Lucht, eds., (Routledge: New York and London, 2024), pp. 421-430.
Abstract: When history, memory and journalism commingle, they often emerge distorted, with significant cultural repercussions. People care deeply about the past, occasionally clashing over who and what should be publicly commemorated. Scholars have long noted that public memory serves the needs of the present more than the past, that it reflects power and goes through stages as political and cultural tensions are reconciled. This chapter calls for more investigation into the relationship between public memory and journalism, which in addition to providing the “first draft” of history, as the cliché goes, perpetually updates history and adapts it to suit its own unique needs.
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