Reply To: Interesting article about war films

[ghent99 3589xp 0]

I think there is a big thing missing in the thoughts on mass media and history, it is not mass medias job to be historically accurate, also it is not history’s job to be good at mass media.  Think about that for a second I will wait 😉  …

 

OK one of the complaints by the author above is that if a Historian (capitalized to show someone who is trained in the Arts and Letters form) is part of the mass media then they have sold their soul and will ruin their reputation.  Here is how that is very incorrect, if you promote and help with a mass media project you are bringing history to the general public, read as those that are not trained in history, in an exciting and easily digested way.  This excitement brings about a revolution about the topic, Historians can right of The Siege of Stalingrad and get every button and stitch correct while selling a few thousand copies to those that are already in the know on the topic.  The mass media can bring a fantastical telling of the story and reach millions, yes many will just stop there and say they learned something, many will only learn that the Soviet Union fought the Nazi regimes during WWII and that the fighting was terrifying.  Some, and here is were we as a whole get the opportunity brought to us, will take another step farther and begin to look at other media options on the topic and this will lead to a harvesting of ideas and thought that will go well beyond the original mass media product they consumed.

This is the importance of mass media in education, many will never cultivate the information beyond what is presented but there are some that will go beyond and find a passion in a new avocation.  Don’t discount the beginnings of the process, many people don’t find the excitement of history until they find they have some of their own.

If “bad” mass media is the gateway to better education then maybe there should be more “bad” and allow the market for education to grow.  If the product has no appeal to the masses then it will not be profitable and there will be no room for any projects to go forward.  “Art for Arts sake” is a term that is thrown around but there is always somewhere the counterbalance that allows for the free lunch.

As a post script:  I have had this discussion as part of my education many times, as we see in the gaming community there are good gate keepers and bad, his article is one that I understand but the argument is meant for higher level classroom discussion and not the general public.  Or here as we can have a discussion in a mostly closeted setting. If the point of his writing an article in the Guardian, another mass media out btw, was to get people to look at historical media and then move onto actual history there may be some validity.  Though it reads as someone who is bitter about mass culture and is frustrated that others don’t do history the “right” way and many academics feel this as they are not part of mass culture when it comes to their topic of study.

 

OK rant over 🙂