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Re: lying with pixels



        Historians have struggled with objectivity for much of the 20th
century. most understand that one can never but truely objective due to the
context in which they were brought up, live, and work. However, historians
strive very hard to be as objective as possible. Without objectivity,
historical documentation would be nothing more than each individual's take
on events. A good book on this subject, for those who have a lot of time, is
Peter Novick's That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American
Historical Profession. (Cambridge Univ. Press), 1988.
        Moreover, archvists do not "document what happened." Instead, they
merely collect and preserve the material that allows researchers to document
events. There is a difference.

Christopher Stanwood
Historic Reference Librarian
College of Physicians of Philadelphia
215-563-3737 x297

-----Original Message-----
From: Jacquelyn Saturley [mailto:saturlej@LIBCOOP.NET]
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2000 11:51 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: lying with pixels


>>How about the ONLY truth?  I suggest that historians have always been
>>selective, anyway - how else to explain the absence of certain groups from
>>official histories?  And don't we, as archivists, decide every day what
makes
>>history, through the choices we make about what to keep and what to
discard?

Maybe I misunderstand the problem? This is not a problem for archivists as I
see it -- our job, or mine, is simply to document what happened -- and the
feed that goes out, regardless of truth or lies, is what should be
documented. But I suppose it would depend on where you work. Historians are
no more selective than the rest of the earth's human population. If you are
searching for the truth, you shall be searching a very long time. Truth??
Wha??? It is so subjective as to be non-existent, perception is everything.

We should know more than most, that much of our country's history, has been
manipulated, massaged, propagandized and marketed towards specific purposes.
So as an archivist, I don't see any alarms.

However, as a human being, I see huge problems with this capability, and
find it extremely upsetting. As a citizen, I expect video, or film, to be as
accurate as possible when it is depicting real, as opposed to fictionalized
events.

Jackie Saturley



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