On Media Shaping History

“All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in the novel are accurate.” --- On the first page of The Da Vinci Code

“A vivid picture of Afghanistan thirty years ago.” --- The Wall Street Journal’s review for The Kite Runner

“War has changed. It’s no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. War and its consumption of life has become a well-oiled machine [in the economy].” Opening Monologue, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

History, as a branch of social science, sometimes cannot be strictly seen or scrutinized as other sciences. In the process of documenting and teaching history, historians often inevitably blend in their personal inputs and biases, which offer different incision points to dissect and analyze a single historic moment or event. Who was the victim and who was the aggressor in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki towards the end of World War II? Who was just and who was unjust in the Cold War between the US and the USSR? The answers to these questions are only true in relative terms, which serves as a motivation for people to further research and refine their arguments.

In the era of media influence, however, scholars are not the only ones offering their accounts in interpreting history. Players in the multimedia arena nowadays also make an immense effort in the attempt of shaping history. The three quotes at the beginning of the post come from two bestselling novels and a popular video game. The emphases in these statements are the authenticity in the historical evidence they present and the depth in their analyses, both of which add credibility to their arguments. Similar to their competitors, elements on other media platforms such as movies and television are also on full throttle in the production and reproduction of history, for example the National Treasure series and the History Channel.

Some scholars dread the multimedia’s attempt in portraying history, considering this move “the principal means in the postmodern world for scrambling historical time (Bennett, Grossberg, Morris, 159).” I wouldn’t necessarily be that pessimistic. No matter we choose to embrace it or not, media influence is penetrating our intellectual and leisure life. As college students, we are trained to be critical thinkers if not anything. In the explosion of information, we are fortunate enough to possess necessary skills to examine and filter the messages we receive. It is true that popular media do not always offer an accurate account in explaining history. However with a critical mind we carry in academic research, we may be able to appreciate unique perspectives in understanding historic events from their portraits. For example, in the video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the story universe is set in the near future in the Middle East where constant battles fought by private military companies have become the backbone of the world’s economy. The striking resemblance of the story to certain reality interests me as an economics major.