The types of texts and methods for doing historical research and scholarship have changed over time and in relation to technology is that now they are looking at texts that have to deal with the underrepresented minorities groups such as African Americans and immigrants. They used “large, open datasets and massive text mining experiments” to be able to get this information (Gomez). There is a real sense of trying to gather information about this minority groups to better understand the history and better help the humanities filed being able to study humans and society.
However, as a result of this big push to become digitalized, it is allowing the old politics becoming digitized instead of an equal balance of old and new politics becoming digital (Gomez). This has led to big obstacles such as libraries and archives not representing historical and figures and/ or communities (Gomez). This is because of funding and as well as the if the public is interested in learning about these topics or not. If the public is not interested or those that are funding the projects do not see the benefits of it, this leads to those in traditional humanities as well as digital humanities to keep underrepresenting these groups (Gomez).
Gomez statement is great example of the power struggles that we have seen in both the traditional humanities and the digital humanities. There is a growing awareness from both fields that there needs to be better representation in terms of race, sex, class etc. And there seems to be a general push that is trying to address these issues. However, because of the “old politics”, projects are not being created in order to better address these topics. Also, because those in power or at the top get to say what should be researched, what should become a project etc. especially if they have no interest in talking about these topics, it can lead to the “old politics” staying on top and being able to digitalize topics that have been addresses numerous times. Funding is also an issue regarding power because if the patrons do not want to give money to projects or research that they do not like, then they will take their funding elsewhere. This has lead to projects of “old politics” still being created because of patrons.
The power issue can also be seen in the article regarding the car accidents and the media plays a role in that. According to their research, many believe that the media tends to blame pedestrians and cyclists for these accidents and really do not blame or question the drivers (Florida). This issue be a power issue because it’s the media and journalists who have the power to write what happened regarding the accident shape how readers will view them. Because they have the power, this can lead to pedestrians and cyclists being blamed for these accidents and not the driver. The other article that discusses the problem with data management can also be a power issue as regarding data, it is hard to find who can assist with processing all of this data (Posner). It is a power issue because traditional humanist is able to process this data but digital humanist are not able to and finding someone to assist with this task is difficult as well. Traditional humanists have the resource while digital humanists do not have as many resources. Because traditional humanists have the power, it is difficult for digital humanists to get the credit and respect that they deserve.
I would want to make my DH project reflect the power struggles that are happening regarding my topic a big point as its important to see if there is a power struggle or if there is an equal share of power that is happening. Its important to understand the power issue because that will set up and explain the data collection process and understanding the data. It’s important when finding data to see if it comes from just “old politics” or “new politics” or a combination of both.
Works Cited
Florida, R. (2019). How Media Coverage of Car Crashes Downplays the Role of Drivers. Bloomberg.com.
Gomez, A. (2019) The Making of the Digital Working Class: Social History, Digital Humanities, and Its Sources. Debates in Digital Humanitie
Posner, M. (2015), Humanities Data: A Necessary Contradiction.
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