Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Platformed Pasts: Social Media, Historical Understanding, and the Reframing of Public Memory

Zijia NiuCheltenham Ladies College*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

How Social Media Reshapes Historical Knowledge: Changes in the Spread, Value and Public Debate of History Online. Based on previous studies in media memory, public history, algorithmic amplification, and online misinformation, this paper will present four qualitative case studies of recent online historical debates: the Blair-Brown relationship within New Labour, the use of the Iraq War as a reference point for discussions on American interventionism and Venezuela, debates over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in response to Donald Trump's criticisms of the alliance, and Holocaust denial on digital platforms. Not all social media use needs to be reflected in school activities. Its impact is relatively small; it is a personalisation of institutional history, a mobilisation of the past for political purposes, a method of correcting problems through historical knowledge, and it also shows the gap between what scholars believe and what the public believes. Therefore, this paper will not ask whether social media are good or bad sources for history. On the other hand, social media is also providing different circumstances for learning about history and assessing it. Source criticism, contextual comparison and evidentiary discipline need to be learned by young children to grasp history in the digital age.

Keywords: social media; historical understanding; public memory; historical analogy; Holocaust denial
Published: May 25, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.33894
Volume: CHR Vol.111
pp. 8-14
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