Journalistic Uses of Collective Memory

Abstract

It has become clichéd to assert that journalists write the first draft of history. Far less attention has been paid to who does the rewrites. Frequently, second drafts of history are also written by journalists. The typology developed here describes the ways journalists use our public past and offers some insights about the process of collective memory development in the news media. Commemorative journalism seems to offer the best chance to reexamine our past, but may offer little incentive to do so. Historical analogies may not encourage us to contest the meaning of the past due to the simple, dramatic narratives of news reporting. Historical contexts may not encourage us to look closely at the meanings we ascribe to the past either, because they are presented as facts rather than interpretations.It has become a cliché to assert that journalists write the first draft of history. Far less attention has been paid to who does the rewrites. Yet this "memory work" is extremely important. As our society continues to dissect itself into small, competing groups, our possession of a past in common may be one of the few ties that bind us as a whole. Collective memory, the meaning that a community makes of its past, is home to critical aspects of political culture, community tradition, and social identity. It informs our understanding of past events and present relationships, and it contributes to our expectations about the future.Frequently, for the narratives of the past that have important impacts on our collective memory, later drafts of history are also written by journalists. The media are unique in their ability to reach huge communities simultaneously. However, like all other narrators of the past, journalists work within the constraints of their profession. If we are to understand how our past is made meaningful for us in the media, and how our political traditions, culture, and identity are handed down to us, we must explore the ways in which journalists use and reconstitute the past. In this essay I develop a typology of the ways in which journalists use history, and explore the implications of these uses for our understanding of our past and future.

Defining Crisis News Events

“…The role of history in journalism reporting has further been addressed in relation to how journalists cover news events (Edy 1999;Houchin Winfield et al 2002;Lang and Lang 1989;Robinson 2006;Edy and Daradanova 2006;Ryan 2004). Thus, what have not been examined thus far are the mechanisms behind media managers' organizational decision-making during large-scale unexpected news events -for example, how do media managers decide upon 'disaster marathons' (Liebes 1992(Liebes , 1998Liebes and Blondheim 2002) and how do they restructure their organizations to meet the challenges posed by such a decision?…”

Como recuerda la televisión. El pasado evocado en los informativos españoles

“…En cuanto a la dimensión geográfica del recuerdo, que la mitad de los asuntos evocados tuviera origen español y la otra mitad foráneo marca una diferencia respecto del localismo típico del periodismo conmemorativo mentado por Edy (1999) como del nacionalismo excluyente del No-Do franquista (Sánchez biosca 2000). De todos modos, cabe observar que, pese a su aparente cosmopolitismo, las efemérides ignoraron olímpicamente la historia de una región en teoría tan próxima a España como Hispanoamérica.…”

Encuadre de la memoria mediática chilena: las noticias sobre la muerte de Fidel Castro

“…Entre las razones de porqué los periodistas recurren a la memoria, está no solo la necesidad de utilizar remembranzas del pasado para contextualizar sus relatos presentes (Zelizer, 2008), sino que también el interés que generan las controversias sobre tiempos anteriores, sobre los que la sociedad no tiene una mirada común, pero de cuya importancia no se duda (Edy, 1999).…”