How is historical authenticity produced and which media strategies come into play? How is history evoked, legitimised and authorised by the media? Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wagner, Dr. Christoph Classen and Dr. Achim Saupe (Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam) together with 14 researchers addressed these questions. The findings have been published under the title “Echt inszeniert [Genuinely Staged]” as an innovative publication: open access gold and with audio-visual quotations.
Abstract
In the modern age shaped by technical mass media, the search for authenticity and the preoccupation with the past have become significant trends. The contributions analyse the connections, interactions and historical specifics of the triangular relationship between media, authenticity and history in terms of a discursive history and by means of case studies: How were and are impressions of immediacy and evidence created in different media? What strategies came into play? What role did notions of objectivity and staging play, but also genre conventions and social or political contexts? How has history been evoked, legitimised and authorised by the media? The multimedia presentation of the contributions collected here integrates the audio-visual sources and, thus, enables insights into the changing conditions and practices of orders of historical knowledge, constructions of reality and claims to validity within the framework of their medial staging.
Classen, C.; Saupe, A.; Wagner, H.-U. (Hrsg.): Echt inszeniert. Historische Authentizität und Medien in der Moderne [Genuinely Staged. Historical Authenticity and Media in Modernity]. Potsdam: zdbooks 2021.