Writing history in the age of the Internet

And the plurality of sources embraced by the Internet is challenging thoughtful historians more severely, asking them just what should go down in history.

If it is hard to make such a decision regarding the record of events, it is even more difficult to determine who should be the heroes and heroines of history. In the past, such figures were known and recorded for their achievements, regardless of whether or not they had obtained sufficient fame and gain to be successful by the worldly standards of today. But the rise and spread of the new media make it possible and plausible for numerous people who have not accomplished much to rise to fame overnight, and their fame may also bring them great wealth, making them "success stories". In other words, the boundary is blurred between heroes and celebrities, achievements and public attention.

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It then takes a specially keen eye on the part of future historians to select and sift through the wealth or waste of information, news, and stories about people and events that supposedly "make history" and "start new epochs". Then hopefully they can generate objective, scientific, reasonable periodizations of history in all spheres of human life and make justifiable assessments of historical events and figures. Up to now human history has been "recorded" and "preserved" history. We are used to leaving out all that was left out of the historical record. Now virtually anything and anybody can be recorded and preserved in history.

Yet it should be noted that there is a silver lining in the cloud of information overload and over-recording. At least it helps future historians who might want to unearth some remote secrets about human activities in our age.

However, we should not underestimate the human ability to manipulate information and bias in written records. When we are tempted to think that all events and people are out in the open sphere, the danger is lurking around that skillful social actors may exploit this to project and present socially desirable images and selectively control public attention and mislead opinion. However, this issue is too complicated and must be left to future historians and scholars in other related disciplines.

How is history made? How is history recorded? How is history preserved? How is history to be written? We are more likely to do justice to history in the Internet age if we start pondering such questions.

The author is a professor with the School of Journalism & Communication at Xiamen University. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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