Note that there is a new category of posts available on the sidebar to the right; all our homework posts will be available under the category homework.
For the homework due on Tuesday February 2, find two history-related accounts on two social media networks (for example, two accounts on Twitter and two accounts on Tumblr). Think broadly about what history-related might mean; some examples include the MedievalPOC tumblr, CivilWarLive livetweeting of the Civil War, the Every3Minutes slave sales twitter assigned for today, or the Brooklyn Museum’s collection tweeting bot.
Remember that we are not looking for traditional websites like the NY Public Library’s digital collections–the central feature of social media is that it is interactive and many users may have an account within the same network. We are also not looking for single history-related posts; the entire account must be history-related.
(You may use one of these examples, but only one–you must find an additional three accounts on your own! You may not use the twitter accounts referenced in our reading It’s History, Not a Viral Feed, for reasons discussed in the reading. One point of extra credit if you’re the first to post an account, maximum one point.)
In your comment below, link the accounts you found, and briefly describe:
- What’s the purpose and audience of each account? How do other users interact with the account, if at all?
- How does each account use the interactive features of its network? How do your two examples from the same network differ from their use of the network’s interactivity features?
- Make a connection between your accounts and at least one of the readings assigned for today (It’s History, Not a Viral Feed by Sarah Werner; Digitisation’s Most Wanted by Melissa Terras; and Slave Sales on Twitter by Caleb McDaniel). Remember that it is polite to refer to authors by their last names, not their first names!
- You will be graded on your use of correct capitalization, spelling and grammar. Writing professionally on the internet is how we present ourselves professionally, like wearing professional clothes for a job interview.
You must also reply to at least one other student’s comment and discuss how your examples differ from the other student’s examples. Your reply is part of your grade for the assignment and not leaving a reply will deduct one point out of ten from your final score for the assignment.
https://twitter.com/civilwarlive
https://twitter.com/NotableHistory
http://historical-nonfiction.tumblr.com/
http://todayinhistory.tumblr.com/
The purpose of each account is to educate its viewers in some way, for example on the first twitter account it speaks about the civil war and the tweets are about what was going on in the nation during that time, what was happening in certain states and decisions that were being made by political leaders; the second tumblr account is full of posts about events that took place on a particular day in history, for example today in history (January 31st), Tokugawa Ieyasu was born and he was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan and he ruled until the Meiji Restoration. The audience of the accounts vary from students, to teachers and the general public. I say this because the language and events posted on the pages are ones that some people would already know about and may find interesting even if not in its historical content, for example many people know of the artist Tupac Shakur but what they may not know is that he was named after “Túpac Amaru II, the leader of an indigenous uprising against Spanish colonial rule in Peru in 1780”, this little piece of information may cause someone to do more research on why this famous artist’s parents named him after Túpac Amaru II. People interact with the accounts by sharing the posts made on the accounts, liking and leaving notes on certain posts and even sharing the accounts themselves with their followers.
Each account uses the interactive features of the networks by making the accounts public which allows anyone to view its content, also it allows people to share the content on the account and on some of the other accounts I viewed but did not list, the owners of the accounts would tweet back to people that ask questions about whatever historical information was posted. My two examples from the same network do not really differ from their use of the network’s interactivity features, they allow viewers to do the same things from what I have seen.
The reading titled “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed” by Sarah Werner was my favorite because I could relate to the things she said about some social media pages and the inaccuracy of the information the pages provide. While I was looking for accounts for this homework even prior to the reading, I tried to look for pages that had events I either knew about already and knew they were accurate or pages that had sources and other links attached to them that would allow me and others to further investigate. For example the tumblr pages I used were great because both give a great deal of information underneath the pictures that are posted and if there is no picture, there is a source link underneath the writing and on some of the posts there are direct quotes from past presidents, kings and people of the sort which proves its validity. Werner’s article interested me even more because there are many instances when I am browsing the web and I come across certain pictures and I just have to look really hard and I can just feel how untrue and photo shopped the picture must be, especially if it takes me hours to find more information about it.
Really great observation about being drawn to accounts with links to more information, keep this in mind as we go on during the semester. What do you think is the balance between familiar/unfamiliar information like in your Tupac example?
https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII
https://twitter.com/Yesterday_Today
http://thecivilwarparlor.tumblr.com/
http://nyhistory.tumblr.com/
The main audience of these social media account are almost everyone who is interested in learning about history. With it’s easy access, just about anyone who has an interest in Americas past can browse any one of these accounts and learn something new. However i think that the tumblr accounts appeal more to the younger audience because of the amount of pictures that makes it easier for people to understand. People can interact with the twitter accounts be retweeting it and sharing the information on their own accounts. On both tumblr and twitter, users can “like” a post to let the poster know that the content has been useful. Each account also has public accounts which allow followers to easily view the accounts. A major difference is that Twitter allows the followers to comment on tweets which can allow for the author and the reader to actually talk to one another. Both sources also use hashtags to make it easier for someone to search and find their post using a specific key word.
A post that can be related to this is “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed” by Sarah Werner. I think that this article speaks for a majority of the internet in general. You have to be skeptical of what you read on the internet and that was definitely a factor in searching for accounts to complete this assignment. Tumblr was one of the easier options because for the most part, you can clearly see the pictures that are posted. And most of the pictures are documents or pictures that can be read to validate the descriptions. As for the twitter accounts, I chose accounts that posted information that I was familiar with like World War 2. Another factor was the amount of followers that it has. I feel that accounts with a good amount of followers would somewhat validate the account.
Angies post was very well thought out. We used the same article by Werner however we described how it influenced us differently. We also picked social media accounts that we all different however we both used accounts that told the history of what happened on that day. I think that this will be a popular option because it’s definitely the most interesting to know what happened today, 80 years ago.
I researched historical events I was more partial to in order to check the accuracy of the social media accounts the same as you. In my opinion I agree with you that Tumblr was more easy to validate because of criteria that is documented along with the actual photography. Although with Twitter, I found in most cases that the accounts with more followers seemed to create unrealistic historical events in order to produce more of following, and more “likes” for themselves, rather then in the name of history.
Really good observations about why we might start with historical areas we’re more familiar with. The followers issue is an interesting one, because it’s really at odds with how we judge a lot on information on the internet. Even Google tells us information is more reliable if more people follow/repost/reblog it.
https://twitter.com/theretronaut
https://twitter.com/NASAhistory
http://ourpresidents.tumblr.com
http://harrytrumanadventure.tumblr.com
The audience for each account is fairly wide, of the accounts I chose each used relatively simple language and didn’t try to over do anything they were posting. This way, a history buff or casual observer can take in the content and continue looking through their feed. The interaction is fairly standard for social media accounts where you can retweet, share, etc.
All the accounts use the type of interactivity that most professional blogs/accounts use. However the two Twitter accounts were more accepting of accounts content on their page. By doing this those accounts promote their own work while also helping other history related blogs. Of the two Tumblr accounts that I used they appeared to be more one sided where they used only their content which is kind of odd for Tumblr, where as most blogs use a fairly even amount of original content along with shared content.
I found the reading “It’s History,Not a Viral Feed” to be very interesting and quite relatable to the topic of social media and history. From my own observation I feel like history and social media wouldn’t be a good match for the very reason of this article. History as a whole is a lineage of facts and social media is spawned from the internet where anything can be considered fact. So when a you can get an account that is both historically accurate, truthful, and credits creators it’s really something special. One thing that both Werner and I feel the same about is accurate accounts. I used a verified account (NASA History) because it really bothers me when people post from fake accounts. By using real accounts across social media, we can stop the spread of false information.
We used all different accounts in our post, but for the most part our findings were pretty similar. We both seemed to have a similar problem though. That problem being accuracy of source. It can definitely be hard to tell if something is just made up on some social media accounts considering you can post whatever you like. I reviewed the Twitter account “History in Pics” for my post and in our reading written by Werner “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed” she points out that some photos from this account are lies. I may have not even noticed so it is definitely smart to use verified accounts when looking at Historical social media accounts.
I researched pages that gave us facts “fun facts”. For example, uberfacts talks about how the volume of an ostrich egg is almost the same as 24 chicken eggs. Whereas, “NASAhistory” and “ourpresidents” gives us facts about things that are seen as more serious. I feel as though the accounts that you used such as “NASAhistory” were more one-sided. It only spoke about historical facts related to it’s topic which is NASA. Uberfacts talks about and gives facts about a variety of things. I found that your accounts are more accurate with their information because they focus on fewer topics. Also, “NASAhistory” is ran by the government meanwhile the accounts I found on twitter are run by people who make popular social media pages for money. So the page ran by the government can be seen as more reliable and trustworthy.
https://twitter.com/TheWWImuseum
https://twitter.com/CivilWarHistory
https://www.facebook.com/nationalarchivesnewyork
https://www.facebook.com/DailyBlackHistoryFacts/timeline
Each social media account presented is for the purpose of educating viewers on the topic of choice. The first Twitter account (@TheeWWIMuseum) shares information about the only museum with content on the first World War, historical facts, and photographs. The second Twitter account (@civalwarhistory) shares information on different event and facts of the Civil War. Majority of the tweets have links if viewers want to read more information. The National Archives of New York Facebook page shares posts from their personal archives site and other relation archive sites with historical information about New York and The United States. The Daily Black History Facts Facebook Page shares specific moments in black history on a variety of subjects. This particular page, you see the most interaction, where people comment and like the posts. The Twitter accounts also show the amount of likes and retweets per post.
For all of the accounts, there are no restrictions on commenting, retweeting, or favoriting the information presented. The noticeable difference between the two Facebook accounts, is the engagement between audience members. The Daily Black History Facts account receives more acknowledgement, which may be the result of the type of content presented. The account highlights significant African-American change makers versus the National Archives of New York account, which has more general content.
For the accounts found, I tried to find Twitter and Facebook pages that were certified, or at least had a credible webpage that accompanied the account. The reading by Werner on “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed” played a role in the social media search for this assignment. Social media viewed as more of an expressive outlet than it is informative. It would not be considered credible unless the proper attributions to its content were present on its pages. McDaniel’s “Slave Sales on Twitter” piece was a way to show the effectiveness of social media by reinforcing the same point and remaining consistent with that point.
I enjoyed looking at the examples you chose for this assignment and although I noticed some similarities there were some differences as well. One of the similarities I noticed was that we both have pages that speak on the civil war but a difference I noticed was that you have another page that speaks further on black history and includes things such as birthdays and facts about other well-known African Americans and I do not have an example like that. Another difference I noticed was that your examples seem to be about particular groups of people whereas most of mine include a wide range of information on a variety of people, places and things; for example one of my pages speak on a Japanese leader prior to the Meiji Restoration, another speaks on the rapper Tupac Shakur and another has pictures of Marilyn Monroe.
From what I’ve gathered your pages are doing a proper job of bringing some type of educational value to its readers/viewers/users etc. On the other hand my pages don’t do this at all 3/4 at least. Commented!
https://twitter.com/History_Pics
https://www.facebook.com/InterestingHistory
https://www.facebook.com/On-This-Day-in-History-322515374458299/timeline
https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII
The purpose of these accounts on social media is to educate people on history in ways where it feels less like they have to make themselves learn. In this way, people are able to learn about different facts and events in history in passing instead of having to set aside a time in the day to sit down and learn. All of the accounts that I selected seem to use the same interactive features such as giving other users the ability to comment or like or retweet their content. However the two Facebook accounts that I chose appeared to differ in their objective for their posting. The account “On This Day in History” seems to be aimed at simply informing people of events that have happened on the past on today’s date. Whereas the account “Interesting History” seems to be geared towards taking common myths about historical facts and revealing what the truth is behind what most people have come to know as historical fact.
I really like what Sarah Werner had to say in the reading “it’s history, not a viral feed”. In this reading Werner talks about how most accounts on Twitter and Facebook are generally focused on getting the highest number of likes and followers and will rarely ever give credit to the source of the photos or information that they use. Werner also talks about how many accounts often post false information because they do not check their sources and are only looking to make a post that will generate a lot of attention for their page. I think that this post is very relatable to nearly all internet users. While looking for pages for this assignment I quickly realized that while most of the pages I found seemed to be very interesting and appeared to be credible and accurate, I didn’t really have any way to validate whether or not the information that they were posting was true. Without a list of the sources of information it is very difficult to tell whether or not the social media account is a credible source for information.
Njnelson I found your comment about the sources you found interesting cause they had such a variety of information. Our accounts were similar especially the one you found on Facebook called Interesting History. In comparison the Facebook account I found titled, Today in Civil War History, just informed its users of events that happened on a specific day. From there on a user would make a comment or two but that’s it, there wasn’t much of flow. The interaction that happens on any type of account I believe is really important because how else does information travel.
I liked the examples you used for the assignment the only thing that was really different was the subject matter. We both used accounts that used a more of a short form writing approach. When I’m on social media I tend to think that this format is the best for this kind of subject. By doing this, with accuracy of course, you can put out a bunch of facts on your account instead of being linked to a different site/app to view the content which could severely decrease your audience.
Our examples differ mostly on the fact that we used completely different social media accounts. You pointed out that users have the ability to comment on the pictures or information that was being presented to them through these sites as I forgot that aspect and limited it to strictly retweets, shares, and likes.
Our choices in social media were pretty similar, on of the pages I chose speaks about what happened on this day in history as well. I agree 100% with the purposes of your social media pages as well because like my tumblr and instagram examples, history is made accessible because it’s outside of textbook. Likewise, the social media accounts I chose gave account holders the option to comment, like, and repost/reblog. However only one of the sites I used, to my knowledge, replied to comments.
https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII
https://twitter.com/CivilWarHistory
http://thecivilwarparlor.tumblr.com/
http://jewishvirtuallibrary.tumblr.com/
The purpose of each of these social media accounts is to educate their wide audience variety through the use of interesting historical accounts and photography. Access to these social media accounts allows the audience to search and sort through an array of historical information without the consuming feeling of needing to learn but rather wanting to learn.
The Twitter accounts and Tumblr accounts use the same basic interactive features to involve their audience, such features include re-tweeting, liking, sharing, re-blogging, and even contribution to some of the social media accounts from the viewers. However the two Tumblr accounts appeared to be more exclusive in sharing outside work, and instead opted to only feature their own, unlike the two twitter accounts that welcomes the historical stories of other as well as photography historically linked to the specific era their account was created for.
In my opinion Sarah Werner’s “It’s History, not a viral feed” is a great example of why you should not trust everything you read on the internet. In today’s day and age social media accounts are more focused on getting a “like” rather then teaching or embedding the true meaning of a historical event into our minds. I really took Werner’s view on social media mixed with historical accuracy into account when searching for historical account examples. I choice to research events that I was partial to in order for myself to further investigate the accuracy within the account, as well as searching for credit, where credit was due. False information is so easily spread on social media today that I found it very important to find the truthful sites that existed.
Our selections for pages and accounts share a similarity in that both of our selections show a broad range of history. However our selections differ in the way that your two tumblr pages seem to focus more on a visual representation of history by supplying pictures that have captions to set the scene. Whereas mine were mostly fact based with no pictures. After looking at the selections that you chose I think that I would prefer to have a picture to accompany the facts. It makes the reading have a little bit more meaning for me personally by bringing the words to life in an image.
I agree with your thoughts on Werner’s piece, as I too discussed the seriousness of credibility in sources (especially on social media). It is constantly enforced to sift through the overloaded amounts of information on the web, and choose the most accurate/appropriate information. I specifically looked at your Tumblr sources because that is one social network that I have never interacted with. I was surprised to see that libraries would use Tumblr as the network of choice to showcase information. We chose the same Twitter account (@CivilWarHistory) as majority of our classmates chose civil war themed accounts.
The main thing that I think separates our examples of history through social media is our audiences. The pages you selected generally take specific events in history and really focuses on it. This provides the opportunity to present in depth information on each page but it also limits the audience to only those really interested in that specific subject. Most of mine (minus the American Revolution one) are much broader topics, allowing for a much wider audience. At the same time though, this also limits how much important information are on these pages, as mine by and large stick to fun facts and intriguing images.
https://twitter.com/OurPresidents
https://twitter.com/CivilWarLive
https://www.instagram.com/history/
https://www.instagram.com/historyphotographed/
The purpose of why these accounts exist is so that they can enlighten and educate many of its audience. Some of the users may have not been around during certain historical time periods. These accounts are able to capture history whether by pictures (Instagram) or tweets (twitter) and give users a perspective as to how life might have been during those time periods. Anyone can assess these account, because they are public. A user can range from being a college or high school student to an adult in the professional world. Also, because these accounts are public it is easy for users to share, re-post, or re-tweet the content. In addition, the users have the options of liking the content displayed both on Instagram and Twitter or leaving their own comment.
As a result, of these accounts being public there are not many restrictions placed. A user can freely comment and like content, which makes the process between the follower and the account holder very interactive. Although Twitter and Instagram share many similarities, they differ in the way information on these accounts are displayed. For example, Instagram primarily use photos and videos to communicate between users and followers. On the other hand Twitter is more of a blog and the users are able to “tweet” and communicate mainly through words. Overall, it is up to the audience if they gravitate towards text or visual presentation.
The information presented in the reading “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed” by Sarah Werner is the same issues that I also noticed in the accounts I selected. The author Werner states that sometimes information presented on these social accounts can often be false, which was a concern I had as well. My example, History on Instagram and Our Presidents on Twitter were two social media accounts with verification which meant that the accounts were authentic. Although, I found accounts with verification, some posts only had an image with a brief caption or pictures of people/celebrities in black and white. Going back to Werner’s concern about the way social media portrays our history, I agree with Werner that not everything on social media we encounter be used as historical fact.
Tmckenna post and mine were similar because we both used Twitter as a social media. Although, Tmckenna used tumbler and I used Instagram both social media uses mainly a visual representation. Tmckenna had some great points in their post and we also agreed that these social accounts allow interaction between the follower and the account holder.
Interesting accounts, like the Tumblr accounts I used they compared to your Instagram accounts in the fact that they covered a broad view of history, not leaving any area unavailable. Whereas our twitter accounts were similar in the fact that they were specific to a part of history. The Instagram accounts differed from my Tumblr accounts in the fact that Instagram is leaving most of the history to be explained through the picture posted, leaving a small description perhaps with the names of the people in the photo as well as a date. My Tumblr posts had ling text in the post diving into the details of the historical account and the importance to the post. Very interesting accounts great post!
Hey! I used the same instagram account HistoryThroughPictures . I didn’t see that it was verified but honestly I’m not on Instagram that often so I wouldn’t have known what to look for. I agree with your point about Werner’s writing, though. A lot of the captions in that account seemed doubtful to me. The Marilyn Monroe post, for example- the woman doesn’t look exactly like Monroe to me. But the fact that it’s verified tells me that maybe all the post hold some truth to them? Maybe. I’m not sure, but to be verified as a history account must mean it holds some sort of truth.
https://www.facebook.com/historybuffofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/History/?fref=nf
https://twitter.com/HistoryInPics
https://twitter.com/HistoryExtra
The purpose of all of the accounts listed above is pretty similar. They are mostly showing older pictures and accounts of different times in history. Their audiences vary from a few hundred thousand to a about 40 million, but they all seem to be similar. The users on the Facebook pages seem to mostly be reminiscing or sharing the page to show all of their friends. The interaction between people in the comments is not as often as twitter was. A lot of the twitter posts would tag their friends and maybe speak a little further about it. Twitter seemed to be more informal about the posts, but also discussed more in my opinion. Facebook was more commenting then discussing. That is where the interactions differ. Twitter mentions are between you a one or a few people, while the comments on the Facebook page “History” (Which has 38 Million likes) seemed to get buried as there was a much higher volume. Werner wrote about @HistoryinPics and how she despises it. I would agree. While it is cool to see older pictures from history, the account does not do much to credit anyone or sometimes even straight up lie. So I would not really consider it a great source at all. Twitter can be a good source and there are some solid History accounts, but it can be hard to tell what is a good source and what is not.
I agree with your point about @HistoryinPics. All too often our social media pages are filled with spam and garbage that people similar share or like. Few social media users actually read the article or post in its entirety and/or research more on the topic. We are all guilty of this to some extent, I would argue. Titles can be catchy and if it is online it has to be true, right?
I liked your comparison about the comment section of Facebook vs. Twitter. While I never use Twitter and am a strict Facebook user, I have noticed that the more popular a page gets, the less intellectual the comments. They begin turning into sections to post advertisements, silly riddles, or simply to tag a friend so they can read about it. Something that I enjoyed about your two Facebook choices is that they contain articles and not just a picture with a caption which I realize I did with 3/4 of my choices.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmericanHistoryMetalDetecting/
https://www.facebook.com/ticwh/?fref=ts
http://instagram.com/civilwartrust
http://instagram.com/historyphotographed
The two types of social media networks that I used to find history-related information were Facebook and Instagram. The first account that I discovered and found rather interesting was the American History Metal Detecting account and it does exactly what its title says. In this account users and scholars alike post status’ and images related to historical artifact finds that have been found in the U.S using a metal detector. In the second Facebook account titled, “Today in Civil War History” one finds a that for most everyday in the year a civil war fact is mentioned for example a fight or a General’s birthday. On the first Instagram account, it is as well about the Civil War but all that is posted is photographs and propaganda from that era. The second Instagram account is all history-related photographs that range from the late 18th century to the mid 20th century. In all four of these accounts, a user can interact with one another either through a public comment or private message. So if a user has something to say about a certain status or photograph they can post whatever that comment may be.
On these accounts users interact with one another in similar ways, there is just different wordings for how this is accomplished. On a Facebook account the way to interact is by posting a comment, clicking the “Like” button, or sending a personal message. The comment feature is of the three features the one that can most be manipulated. If one is the main holder of a certain page they can decide whether another person’s comment on the page will be deleted, seen by anyone, seen by only friends or private. Instagram works in a similar way, one can only post images on Instagram though if it’s one’s own main account. Users can post comments below a picture, click the heart icon to favorite the image and send a DM (personal message). Both the Instagram accounts and Facebook accounts do such features as the ones mentioned to each respective network. What I would say makes for example the Facebook accounts interactive feature from the network’s typical interactivity features is that the accounts are both public. Sometimes accounts can be put to private mode so nothing that is posted or commented on can be seen unless a friend request is put in.
Of the readings that were posted for 2/2 in this AHIS 290 class, the one I felt most related to the accounts I found was that of Sarah Werner’s. In her piece, “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed” what she spoke about in relations to there being so many online accounts with historical photographs with tidbit captions made sense. One of the accounts I found on Instagram about U.S History did just that! The person or people who are in charge of the account didn’t really put much historical background information like I expected them to. What could be found was sometimes the photographer’s name, era, location and subject, which takes about 2 lines in the caption section.
It was a relief to know that this wasn’t something that only I noticed but that was a common thought amongst others. Werner even mentioned how some photos have been circulating with misleading information such as one of Nikola Tesla being a swimming instructor. It’s types of things like this that should remind user’s that any information found on a social media network account should be double looked for authenticity.
https://twitter.com/JQAdams_MHS
https://twitter.com/GirlsOwn
http://pbsthisdayinhistory.tumblr.com/
http://historical-nonfiction.tumblr.com/
My two posts from Tumblr are just daily facts about history, leaves a very broad form for the admin to post. Just daily history facts that are interesting. One recounts history facts based on the day while the other just has historical facts sometimes relevant, sometimes it seems more random. The twitter accounts are much more specific. There is one account dedicated to the life of President John Quincy Adams by accounting passages from his diary, total invasion of privacy but an interesting look into the mind of one of our lesser known presidents. The next account is also specifically catered to the problems of women from the 1880’s to the 1890’s. A comical look at how the struggles of women are today compared to back then.
The users on the GirlsOwn account generally use this feed for comedic purposes, the feed allows its users to caption old historical photos and drawings, making it a contest with the funniest caption. JQAdams rarely gets retweeted or favored despite the impressive number of followers. Lots of presidential history buffs. The Tumblr accounts have many users posting and reposting, I believe due the broad nature of the posts. There is lots of content that is not just history taught in schools, but pop culture history. There are frequent posts on musicians in the pbsthisdayinhistory account, as well as interesting artwork. Showing the fun side of history people might not often consider history. The historical-nonfiction feed takes interesting historical facts that some might not believe to be true and bring validity to the facts stated, reciving many reposts from users.
The twitter feed GirlsOwn like the reading It’s history, not a viral feed, shows the comedic side of history. Poking fun at history and the ridiculousness that is so often found in history. Werner’s post also connects to the historical-nonfiction post by looking for inaccuracies in history and deciphering the real from the fake.
Tumblr- http://todayinblackhistory.tumblr.com/ AND http://quistapp.tumblr.com/
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/historyphotographed/ AND https://www.instagram.com/historyjokes/
1. Both accounts tell the history of a specific set of people, and as such, their audience is more than like mostly made up of these people (i.e., mostly black bloggers following Today in Black history and mostly queer bloggers following Quist). Of course, this doesn’t mean the audience is only queer bloggers/black bloggers. But neither Instagram has any info on their publishers, so we can only guess how true any of the pictures are (@historyjokes aside).
2. @historyjokes actually participates in the comments section of some of their posts, but @historyphotographed seems to be mostly aesthetically based, so there’s little to no interaction with the followers. Todayinblackhistory regularly answers asks and interacts with their followers, but Quist is heavily based on an app and doesn’t appear to interact much with their followers (presumably because they have customer service through their app).
3. McDaniel’s account focuses on a very specific aspect of black history, whereas Todayinblackhistory focuses on a wide range of black history, concentrating on more positive historical events such as the 2008 presidential election.
http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/
http://nmaahc.tumblr.com/
https://www.instagram.com/whitehouse/
https://www.instagram.com/todayinamericanhistory/
The purpose of the white house account is to give every day citizens a look into the activities of the White House, making it more accessible as oppose to a well kept secret. It’s not certain that the White House responds to direct messages, but the comments section is definitely an outlet for other Instagram account holders to voice their opinions. On the other hand, the ‘Today in American History” account does almost the same thing as the civil war twitter page by connecting history with real time. This page is not as monitored as the White House Instagram page, but people are also free to comment. In addition to its primary purpose, this Instagram account also reminds Americans of how far the nation has come. For example, this Instagram page acknowledges the 240th birthday of the Marines.
The Medieval tumblr page sheds light on people of color during the medieval times in which history is typically “whitewashed”, validating the place of people of color in every area of history. This tumblr page also allows comments from viewers and it responds accordingly in addition to using the hashtag feature that tumblr has and allowing viewers to also like, share, and reblog. Likewise, the Smithsonian “American History through an African American Lens” tumblr page aims to give the public another perspective on American History that is seldom focused on, creating another platform concerning the roles of people of color in American history. The Smithsonian blog also uses hashtags and allows bloggers to share, like, and reblog the blog’s posts.
While I was reading Sarah Werner’s article I definitely thought of Smithsonian and the “Today in American History” pages because they had memes. In my opinion, memes bring a lighthearted feel to history that is typically black and white. Looking into the future, such memes can serve as a way of knowing what circumstances a society faced. Werner also says that “history is not a game”, but in my opinion just because something isn’t a game doesn’t mean that I has to be put on a pedestal. Technology has the ability to make history relatable as oppose to simply something that we learn about to fulfill an education requirement.
Today In American History
https://www.instagram.com/todayinamericanhistory/
WWII Today
https://twitter.com/WWIIToday
History in Pics
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAI1hpbizr_/?taken-by=historyphotographed
Today in American History_
https://www.instagram.com/todayinamericanhistory_/
The topics of social media network I used was Twitter and Instagram. The purpose of this these social media websites is to enlighten and educate this viewers through explaining on a particular day, a historical event that occurred whether it be specifical World War II facts or American History in its interiority. The audience for these accounts are people that are interested in American history. Interaction is formed because these accounts have been created for the public’s use. This allows the audience to have the freedom to comment, like, and/or retweet on anything that is on these accounts. On Instagram the audience can interact with each other but using the comment section of the post. On Twitter, replying to a tweet is a great way to start different interaction with other viewers. In the reading “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed” by Sarah Werner I saw that she talked about something that occurs a lot on these accounts, whomever is in control doesn’t go into detail about what happened on that day. A short sentence explaining what happen is all the viewer gets. I can understand Twitter post has its limitation of only 140 character. But with Instagram to my knowledge there is no limitation of the amount you can write. Grant it for me being a history junky and wanting to know more information the control of the post has to say about the that time in history.
Looking at cgordon we differ in the sense that they decided to use Facebook as one of their social media networks. In addition cgordon looking at what they picked the accounts chosen are specific/selective to a particular part of history. Whereas the accounts I have chosen apart from one are about American History in general. Post that these accounts create range to the when the 13th Amendment was created to in more recent history such as photographs and/or date to when Steve Jobs introduce the first Iphone.
Tumblr -http://coolchicksfromhistory.tumblr.com/ and ourpresidents.tumblr.com
Twitter- https://twitter.com/weird_hist and https://twitter.com/TweetsofOld
For Tumblrs “ourpresidents” the purpose seems to be all things regarding presidents, from the signing of historical laws to celebrity appearances at the white house. The blog attracts an audience mostly made up of many history buffs. As for the “coolchicksfromhistory” the purpose seems clear, expose historic women through their stories. Both blogs use pictures and captions to convey a message. Tumblr also has the option for users to share and like a post.
Twitter infamously known for its ability to connect the world to media through 140 characters. Weird History by Andrew Rader, a MIT graduate, focuses on exactly what its called Weird History. This source of history is for anyone who loves random facts. Every Weird History tweet is attached with a picture and able to be favorited and retweeted to share with others.
TweetsofOld takes excerpts from old newspapers and tweets them. Its a great way to get a different account of society a century earlier. Both history accounts have huge followings and are clear examples of the influence of social media.
Werner makes a valid point on Its, History, Not a Viral Feed by stating that many of the pictures on twitter posted by history accounts are unknown to be true and often have no credit to the photographer. Weird History is a good example of such.
https://twitter.com/Blklivesmatte
http://maleprivilege.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/NASA
http://gayrightsarehumanrights.tumblr.com/
The purpose of each site it to let people explore and educate oneself to gain new knowledge. Many of these outlets allow easy access to gain the information need, as long as one person can gain internet access via phone or computer. As for as audience this sources are open to the public who which to gain these information for whatever purpose. Each account uses its network to interact with views in different ways, for twitter it uses quotes, links, photos and video to communicate. However Tumblr main use is for images, and gifs images to display a more visual content. As said on the article by McDaniel, “Slave sales on Twitter”, the quality of Wikipedia is low and information for people should be made more valuable. She argue that there’s a need to make information available online via better sources. Which I agree to her article Wikipedia is one the least credible source of information.
I agree with your opinion about McDaniels article “Slave sales on Twitter”, and the quality of Wikipedia. It is definitely not a trustworthy source that can be manipulated by anyone. I would not recommend anyone to utilize any data from there. Although our opinions are similar, our examples of social media accounts slightly differ. You chose to use Twitter and Tumblr accounts and they interact using mostly pictures and attract a broad audience, whereas I chose to use Facebook and Youtube accounts and they interact using videos and documents. Also, the Youtube accounts I chose targeted a younger audience.
https://www.facebook.com/thenandnowghostsofhistory/
https://www.facebook.com/New-York-State-Military-Museum-121467901283599/
https://twitter.com/vietnamtimeline
https://twitter.com/ww2db
I am strictly a Facebook user that happened to have a Twitter account. So I chose two of the many examples I follow from Facebook and then searched for two more on Twitter. The first page that I follow is “Ghosts of History.” This page provides an interesting spin on historical photos. Not only does it give information along with the historical photograph but also provides a modern picture of the same location and then overlays them to show the similarities and differences time has taken. Now most of the photos are from WWII but there are some non-war photos scattered about.
The second Facebook page that I follow is “The New York State Military Museum.” For those of you that are unfamiliar with the museum, it is located in Saratoga Springs, a short drive a way. I was fortunate enough to have an uncle that works closely with the museum and arrange for a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility and that tour was what sparked my interest in future museum work. The Facebook account for the museum was quiet for quite a lengthy amount of time and it was not until recently that it began posting on a regular basis showing off the various exhibits and artifacts relating to the military history of New York State. I highly recommend checking out not only their Facebook account but also their website.
On to Twitter; “Vietnam War Timeline” provides very brief and concise tidbits about the various events during the Vietnam War. From combat missions to anti-war protests, it has been a joy to read through the various tweets. Unfortunately the account has been quiet for a few months now.
The final Twitter page that I discovered is similar to my first. “ww2db” is the twitter handle of ww2db.com which is a rather impressive database dedicated to educating people about the various people, events, battles, etc. of WWII. The Twitter page gives daily accounts of what happened on that day during WWII which can be fun to follow along with.
Prior to reading “Melissa Terras’ Blog: Digitisation’s Most Wanted” I had never considered what the most widely accessed online items at academic institutions. It seems that between the various examples she provides there is not a common denominator. Some pieces date back to the mid-17th century and others are about Malaysian translations! Looking at my four examples of social media I realized I have a common denominator: All are war-related. Each page ranges a few hundred likes/followers to tens of thousands. It is interesting because while I was sitting at my computer thinking of what other forms I could write about other than Facebook I could not believe that I had such trouble finding non-war examples. If there is one thing that people devour, it would have to be war and that is evident by the pieces I chose to write about.
https://www.facebook.com/AmericanRevolutionDailyHistory/
https://www.facebook.com/historyfacts8/?fref=ts https://www.instagram.com/todayinamericanhistory/
https://www.instagram.com/historyphotographed/
My two social media sources all attempt to achieve the same goal in ways that best suite their website. They all chose to present a part of history in an original that will best interest as many peoples possible. On Instagram, the pages Today in American History and History Photographed uses Instagram’s image base to intrigue viewers through interesting, humorous or even nostalgic snapshots of the past. Interested viewers are able to click on each picture to reveal a small blurb on the event as as (usually) a photograph source for further inquiry. While the Facebook pages American Revolution Daily History and History Facts use status updates to provide unique fun facts about history to entice people to subscribe. Both sources allow the viewer the opportunity to comment and bring their own knowledge or opinions to the table, for better or for worse. They can also like any post to gauge the popularity of any post and provide a quick review of any post. Facebook also allows for people to share posts, allowing people to spread posts they particularly like to an even wider audience.
What really stands out to me about these pages is their clear relation to Caleb McDaniel’s article Slave Sales on Twitter. Specifically its ideals about using popular websites to teach history and spread its ideas. Each page presented is a clear indication of such sentiments at work. They’re all attempting to teach a new generation about history through methods and websites most used by said generation. None of the pages are purely for history buffs, but are but easily seen and enjoyed by anyone, allowing everyone to take part in its knowledge. Unlike the article, these pages aren’t trying to present any social message, but in their own way bring history into the lives of everyday people in new, fascinating ways.
https://www.facebook.com/historytoday/?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmericanHistoryMetalDetecting/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xIy7FoiaQY&list=PLfmGJIM_dJLybH-QSLBPiB5d-TOnZVfZz
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2_KC8lshtCyiLApy27raYw
The purpose of the social media accounts above is to allow the public to have access to historical information. By having the opportunity to access social media accounts that solely focus on historical events it provides one with the possibility to enhance one’s knowledge on that specific topic. It also provides detailed data that can reinforce or modify one’s perspective. In regards to what audience is targeted by these particular accounts: the first two Facebook accounts are open to the general public and the youtube channels specifically target youth but it can also be viewed by the general public. Users interact with Facebook accounts by using the like button (this is self-explanatory, it simply means you like the post), sharing, and commenting on the Facebook page. Users interact with Youtube accounts by subscribing to the youtube channel and commenting on videos. Both accounts permit the public to express their opinions, concerns, and/or questions.
Both Facebook accounts (https://www.facebook.com/historytoday/?fref=ts and
https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmericanHistoryMetalDetecting/) allow the public to leave their comments freely, but there is no interaction between the audience and the Facebook page owner. Although facebook does give the option of private messaging, neither accounts are taking advantage of that feature. Both Youtube accounts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xIy7FoiaQY&list=PLfmGJIM_dJLybH-QSLBPiB5d-TOnZVfZz and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2_KC8lshtCyiLApy27raYw) allow the general public to comment, subscribe and like their videos, but just like the Facebook accounts, there is no interaction between Youtube and the general public.
After concluding each reading assigned on 02/2/16, I found the reading titled “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed” by Sarah Werner most relatable because I’ve come across several inaccurate information on the web. For example, both of the Facebook accounts can be trusted because all the documents that are posted on the site provide a source link, unlike the Youtube accounts where one could only utilize their personal judgement when deciding if the information provided is trustworthy or not. Both accounts are easily accessible for any use, but in this case, only the Facebook accounts confirm to be viable.
http://romegreeceart.tumblr.com/
http://gayrightsarehumanrights.tumblr.com/
https://www.facebook.com/FathersRightsMovement/?nr
https://www.facebook.com/FathersRightsMovement/?nr
The accounts listed above have one way interaction with the account holders. The users who like the page may send things to the account admin to help better it but the account admins never outwardly interact with their audience on a social level.
These sights make poor use of the interactive features available to them. These pages seem to have no active effort towards the growth of the page as a whole and is almost as if the personality of the page is introverted if that metaphor makes sense. The public can of course converse on the site but that doesn’t set it apart in any way.
I did my readings AFTER I found my pages. Ironically my pages are the exact type of pages mentioned in “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed by Sarah Werner”. These pages just post pictures up and don’t tell you much about it. The only page here that falls through the cracks is http://romegreeceart.tumblr.com/, but that’s ok! This serves as an example of how Werner believes historical pages should conduct themselves.
https://twitter.com/MMAHistoryToday
https://twitter.com/TweetsofOld
http://coolchicksfromhistory.tumblr.com/
http://pbsthisdayinhistory.tumblr.com/
The purpose of each social media account I chose is to educate the public regarding events and moments of particular historical importance. Despite focusing on differing subjects, they all accomplish this task. For example, both MMA History Today and PBS This Day in History share historical images and facts relevant to the current date with their users, however, the former covers the sport of Mixed Martial Arts while the latter covers general American history. Furthermore, the Tweets of Old and Cool Chicks in History accounts offer a different view on history looking backwards.
The Twitter accounts, MMA History Today and Tweets of Old, operate in familiar fashion: facts are tweeted which are then favorite, retweeted, and shared at the leisure of their readers. Similarly, the Tumblr accounts, Cool Chicks from History and PBS This Day in History, offer much of the same functionality. It is worth noting that Cool Chicks from History allows users to ask questions and submit recommendations as well.
A recurring issue I spotted with the Twitter accounts strongly relates to the reading “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed” by Sarah Werner. The issue is that neither of the Twitter accounts offer any kind of content credit, source, or citation. Without any attribution, not only are the account owners putting themselves at legal risk for copyright infringement, it halts any reader who wishes to verify the information by checking the source.
https://www.instagram.com/amazinghistory/
https://www.instagram.com/history/
https://www.instagram.com/oldpicsarchive/
https://www.instagram.com/lostinhistorypics/
Two different forms of social media that I used to find accounts dealing with history were Instagram and Twitter. There are thousands of “history pages” on each social media source, but solemnly are they accurate.
The first form of social media I checked was Instagram. Two accounts I found were @Hisory, which was the History Channel’s twitter, and @amazinghistory. For both of these I noticed that the audience is mainly people who are interested in history, but not interested enough to care about sources. None of the instagram accounts that I found contained sources, or were cited in any way shape or form. While I found that the History Channel’s instagram was mostly factual, the other account I found could have just been made up. For instagram, it seems to be that the most interaction would just be to “favorite” or comment on the photo or even just looking at it for a second, or two, then to just keep scrolling past it. These two different accounts barely differ from their use of the network’s interactivity features. I’d say that the only difference would be that people that are more interested in history would probably follow @history, and would therefor look further into the photos, rather than just keep scrolling.
For the second social media form I used Twitter. The two accounts that I found were Lost in History (@lostinhistorypics), and Historical Moments (@oldpicsarchive). Both of these accounts are very vague, and the audience would most likely be people who are not history buffs, but just interested in scrolling past a little bit of what they believe to be the past in their news feed. Many of these accounts contain pictures that aren’t even very relevant to history. An example of this would be the Beetles walking off of an airplane. The picture on Lost in History quotes the picture as “The Beatles landed in America for the first time, 1964”. The photo is not cited, and has no sources. Therefor, how do we even know that it’s actually a picture of their first time in America, or that they’re even in America to begin with?
All of these accounts that I found relate to the article “It’s History, Not a Viral Feed”, written by Sarah Werner, because they all “do nothing more than post “old” pictures and little tidbits of captions for them” Every single account I found has no sources at all, even the Instagram for the History Channel. What is even more surprising is that all of the accounts I found each had millions of followers. This proves that these accounts were all just made to be appealing to a certain audience, that just scrolls past these pictures.
Tumblr
My first source, Little US History Things seemed to be a reliable history source, yet it is not. The blog focuses on taking history pictures and altering them with jokes, and bad ones at that (such as a picture of Thomas Jefferson with the caption “JeffersON” followed by the picture blacked out and the caption “JefferOFF”. The audience must be younger, as the pictures become memes of history, which are not accurate. The audience cannot interact with the sight. This was an awful history blog which seemed to be a good one (based on the title). My second Tumblr blog seemed to be irrelevant because of the title “Fuck Yeah History Crushes”. However, it was actually very historically interesting. It seemed to be focused toward history buffs who had an interest in a certain person in history. People can message the creator of the blog with their “crush” to have it posted. It would either be just a picture of them with their name and a brief biography, or they could be featured in their “history lesson” link with a longer biography. Both relate to Sarah Werner’s article. The first blog, Little US History Things alters many of the images and is not historically accurate, just as her article notes. However, the second source, history crushes, seems very accurate, although there is no sources given (just as the first).
Facebook
My first Facebook page is “NHL on NBC Sports”. This page is not a complete history page; however, by typing “history” into search, one could find many interesting “This day in history” posts, some of which have articles. Also included are players and teams making history in various ways. It is obviously geared toward history fans of any age (as many of my mother’s friends follow this page). The second is “War History Online” which focuses on all war history “from the stone age until the 1st Gulf War.” This is a great sight for anyone who has an interest in war. There are various articles and videos along with every post, for the readers to interact further with the sight. Both sights completely contradict Werner’s article. The NBC Sports page only uses their own broadcasts and pictures, so there is no need to add sources or alter pictures. The War History page attaches links which are attached to their own news media outlet and website. All of the source information is found in the articles. In addition, the sources that seem crazy (such as the Philadelphia Experiment conspiracy that the Navy had a ship which was invisible) are reported on, but clearly stated as “si-fi” and conspiracy.
Little US History Things – http://littleushistorythings.tumblr.com/
Fuck Yeah History Crushes – http://fuckyeahhistorycrushes.tumblr.com/
NHL on NBC Sports – https://www.facebook.com/NHLonNBCSports/
War History Online – https://www.facebook.com/wrhstol/?fref=ts