A form of public history that I
have found very interesting is a podcast called “Stuff You Missed in History
Class”. I have listened to this podcast for
a couple of years now and it has helped increase my knowledge and understanding
of different subjects. While it is not an in-depth analysis of individual
subjects, it does give an overview of what happened. These podcasts are short,
about 30 minutes, and include many topics that cover all aspects of history.
While some can be very serious
podcasts, like cannibalism at Jamestown they can also be lighthearted like the
origin of the “birthday song”. And while I am by no means an expert in any of
these subjects I have learned quite a bit and this new information helps me not
only when playing trivia or just a better understanding of a subject I see in a
museum exhibit. However, while looking at reviews of the podcast I saw that
some people had criticized the podcast for mis-representing the facts or interpreting
history as they saw it. In contrast, though, many more people enjoyed the podcast
and it has very high ratings on itunes. While I believe that sometimes the
podcasts may be inaccurate, and these mistakes do need to be addressed, I still think the hosts do a great job of representing
history and make learning it fun.
I think this form of public history
is great, it has a very broad reach in the public sphere and while it may
sometimes be historically inaccurate, I believe that its goal of spreading
history has succeeded. The use of podcasts to teach history would work very
well in other aspects of public history. Museums could use it explain exhibits
or give more information on certain subjects. Archives could use podcasts to
explain the historical significance of documents in their collections. With
this new age of ever changing technology museums and archives must expand and
step outside the box to embrace this new technology to help educate and make
history interesting.
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