What's New About Fake News? Integrating Digital History for Media

Meghan McGlinn Manfra

As we continue to confront the implica- they draw lessons about historical signif- examples include evaluating new media tions of fake news and misinformation icance and change over time. According over time, uncovering bias, and engaging for American democracy, particularly to Lynn Hunt: in discourse analysis. the effects on our public institutions, it is natural to turn to examples from the past. The emergence of new concerns Evaluating Newspapers and Digital libraries and archives provide in the present invariably reveals Other Media our students with unprecedented access aspects of historical experience The history of the press in the United to media from the past. Digital history that have been occluded or for- States provides a window into major includes the raw materials of history— gotten. Respect for the past … political events over time. News stories archival materials such as texts, images, enables us to see beyond our provide content about events as well as and artifacts that have been digitized to present-day concerns backward reflect the socio-cultural context of the allow access to larger audiences. Digital and forward at the same time.2 time. Newspapers helped to shape public history also includes products such as opinion, and the perspectives conveyed digital documentaries, digital exhibits, This “respect for the past” includes often reveal political and geographic dif- and digital tours that provide a narra- avoiding presentism—relying too heav- ferences. Teachers can juxtapose other tive or argument about the past. Teachers ily on our contemporary perspectives to types of media alongside newspaper can use digital history as “history-spe- understand the past. Peter Lee cautions accounts to engage students in uncover- cific cognitive tools” to “help students that “world views of previous genera- ing bias and seeking out corroborating learn content, analyze sources, frame tions of people were profoundly different evidence. The teaching suggestions I historical problems, corroborate evi- than our own.”3 Understanding the past provide include brief summaries about dence, determine significance, or build requires students to develop “extraor- the role of newspapers and other media historical arguments.”1 I will focus on dinary knowledge and skills” to “put at different times in American history resources available through the Library oneself in another’s shoes.”4 Teachers alongside examples of relevant digital of Congress, including the Chronicling must help students navigate the pitfalls of history resources for the events men- America collection, and affiliated orga- presentism as they “examine the fruitful tioned (see sidebar on p. 115). Across nizations. At the outset, it is important to tension between present concerns and the examples, students are encouraged to note that digital archives are themselves respect for the past.”5 When students engage in discourse analysis to uncover historical narratives, relying on available consider the ways in which their pres- hidden bias and latent meaning in the archival evidence and curated based on ent experiences influence their interpre- artifacts. a unique set of assumptions and biases. tation of past events, they can develop more nuanced understandings both Colonial Period, the Boston Looking to the Past to Understand about the past and the present. Specific Massacre, and Perspective the Present to understanding the long history of fake Taking in Media Turning to the past to help understand news, digital history can provide cogni- Colonial leaders knew that newspapers contemporary contexts makes the field tive tools for students to analyze media could play an important role in shap- of history more relevant for students as as a cultural text. Highlighted teaching ing public opinion about the revolu-

March / April 2019 113 tionary cause. In his diary, John Adams was mentioned in the Boston Gazette prominence due to its coverage of John wrote, “The Evening spent in preparing (1770)—“A mulatto man, named Crispus Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry. During for the Next Days Newspaper [Boston Attucks, who was born in Framingham, the Civil War, the paper’s circulation Gazette]—a curious Employment. but lately belonged to New-Providence … averaged between 100,000-160,000 Cooking up Paragraphs, Articles, also killed instantly”—he did not appear copies per issue. Andrea Pearson notes Occurrences, &c.—working the political in Paul Revere’s engraving. Rather, it was that Leslie’s paper “had a reputation for Engine!” For evidence of the “political much later that Attucks appears in visual sensationalizing written news” yet was engine” at work, we can turn to Monday, depictions of the Boston Massacre. For credited with highlighting the “impor- March 12, 1770, when the Boston example, when students analyze W. L. tance and accuracy of the news image in Gazette featured a stark illustration of Champney’s (1856) and B.F. Hammond’s nineteenth-century America.”7 four simple coffins alongside an account (1897) lithographs they will note Attucks To explore the significance of news of the events that became known as the as a central, highlighted figure in the imag- images as a new technology of the nine- Boston Massacre (see sidebar on p. 115 ery of the massacre. This discourse can be teenth century, students can analyze a for URLs). Details of the event were also compared to digital primary source texts variety of Leslie’s images of John Brown. captured in an engraving by Paul Revere, that mention Attucks, including Booker For example, the Saturday, November 19, “The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in T. Washington’s (1898) Thanksgiving 1859, edition featured a full-page portrait King Street Boston,” which largely cor- Jubilee services address and Martin of John Brown with the caption: “John roborates the account offered by the Luther King Jr.’s (1964) Why We Can’t Brown, now under sentence of death for Boston Gazette. To look for contradic- Wait. Here teachers can encourage stu- treason and murder, at Charlestown, Va. tory evidence, students must dig deeper. dents to consider the role of media as a From a photograph taken one year ago by Options include reading the transcript cultural creation, reflecting the concerns Martin M. Lawrence.” This image and of the trial of the British soldiers, rep- and issues of the time in which it is cre- others from Leslie’s newspaper could be resented in court by John Adams. At ated. For instance, students will note that analyzed with particular attention paid the trial, James Bailey testified to seeing Attucks gained greater recognition as vic- to the extent to which Leslie’s newspaper large pieces of ice being thrown at the tim of the Boston Massacre over time, was able to provide “accurate” images soldiers. Students can also read [British] especially as part of the long civil rights of a polemic event. In addition, Leslie’s Captain Thomas Preston’s account of the movement in the United States. images could be compared to other events in the Boston Evening Post, on accounts about Harper’s Ferry from June 25, 1770. Harper’s Ferry and the Significance newspapers across the United States. Ultimately students will need to of News Images For example, The Southerner (Tarboro develop historical arguments about the Throughout the nineteenth century, Edgecombe Co., N.C., 1859) described Boston Massacre based on the primary newspapers became increasingly impor- the “startling news” about the raid on sources they analyze. Beyond acknowl- tant in American culture. Advances in Harper’s Ferry. The Iowa Transcript edging evidence of the clash between printing technology made it cheaper (1859) focused on Brown’s “defense of British soldiers stationed in Boston and and easier for publishers to reach large the Constitution” and his experiences in civilians, the exact details of the events groups of people. This period was also Bleeding Kansas. And The Anti-Slavery appear to be complicated by compet- marked by the emergence of an inde- Bugle (Ohio, 1860) referred to “the mar- ing accounts. Part of understanding the pendent, commercial press, free from tyrs” who died at Harper’s Ferry. These Boston Massacre as a significant event in political party affiliation. According to papers provide a snapshot of the regional American history, then, is understanding Menahem Blondheim, “The indepen- differences in reporting about Harper’s how it became latent with cultural mean- dent press remained political, opinion- Ferry. By extension, students could also ing. Historical accounts of the events ated, and even partisan. Yet its inde- compare Leslie’s reporting before and reveal the concerns and perspectives of pendence of party sponsorship and after the start of the Civil War when, in the time and demonstrate how media patronage had far-reaching effects on order to keep his readership, he gave captured and perhaps shaped those per- the nature and flow of public informa- the newspaper a “decisively Northern spectives. tion.”6 Among these effects were the bent.”8 Across these examples, the news By extension, students can continue rise of investigative journalism and the images and stories provide insight about their analytical reflection about the notion of the free press as a check on the culture of the time in which they were Boston Massacre and media created to government power. produced, highlighting the importance describe the event, by considering the One of the most successful newspapers placed on pictorial papers and the role of recognition given to Crispus Attucks, a of the period, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated the newspaper at a time of deep political victim of the massacre. Although his death Newspaper (established in 1855), gained polarization. They also demonstrate the

Social Education 114 Digital History Resources (This list of resources can also be accessed at: go.ncsu.edu/whatsnewfakenews)

Colonial Period, the Boston Massacre, and Civil War, News Journalism, and Photography Perspective Taking in Media Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 7. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln7/1:773.2?rg The Boston Gazette and Country Journal. Monday, March 12, 1770, www. n=div2;view=fulltext;q1=May+30%2C+1864 loc.gov/item/2006682619/ The Life of Abraham Lincoln Article from pages 2–3 of The Boston-Gazette and Country Journal, No. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=KC0DAAAAYAAJ&hl=e 779, March 12 1770, www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_ n&pg=GBS.PA11 id=316&img_step=1&pid=2&mode=transcript#page1 Abraham Lincoln Slide Show—Selected Images from the Collections Paul Revere’s engraving of the “The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in of the Library of Congress King Street Boston,” www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a45748/ www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/608_lincoln_slide.html

Trial of the British soldiers (1824) Gold Hoax, Forged Proclamation and Reaction (Transcription from www.loc.gov/law/help/rare-books/pdf/john_adams_1824_version. the Lincoln papers) pdf https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln7/1:773.2?rgn=div2;vie w=fulltext;q1=May+30%2C+1864 Boston Evening Post, June 25 1770 (the Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr, Jr.) www.masshist.org/dorr/volume/3/sequence/196 Gold Hoax, The Forged Proclamation and Reaction (Transcription from NYT archives) Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre www.nytimes.com/1864/05/19/archives/the-forged-proclamation- www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/march-05/ public-excitement-and-indignation.html

The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770 (by W.L. Champney) The New York Herald, May 19, 1864, Page 2, Image 2 www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/388659 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1864-05-19/ ed-1/seq-2/ Harper’s Ferry and the Significance of News Images About the New York Journal of Commerce John Brown Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (front page) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030542/ https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c30000/3c37000/3c37500/3 c37591v.jpg The true story behind the Gettysburg sharpshooter (National Archives) The Harper’s Ferry Insurrection—The U.S. Marines storming the https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2013/06/20/the-true-story- engine house—Insurgents firing through holes in the doors / from a behind-the-gettysburg-sharpshooter/ sketch made on the spot by our special artist. www.loc.gov/resource/ cph.3c26970/ The Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter https://i2.wp.com/prologue.blogs.archives.gov/wp-content/ The Southerner, October 22, 1859, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ uploads/2013/06/home-of-a-rebel-sharpshooter.jpg?ssl=1 lccn/sn90052434/1859-10-22/ed-1/ Civil War Photojournalism: A Record of War (Library of Congress) Iowa Transcript, November 3, 1859, www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87058318/1859-11-03/ photojournalism/slides.html ed-1/ Our protection/ Chas. Paxson, photographer, N.Y. The Anti-Slavery Bugle, New-Lisbon, Ohio, November 10, 1860, www.loc.gov/item/2016647906/ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1860-11-10/ ed-1/seq-3/ Rosa, Charley, Rebecca. Slave children from New Orleans / Chas. Paxson, photographer, N.Y., www.loc.gov/item/2010647863/

Charley, a slave boy from New Orleans / Chas. Paxson, photographer, N.Y., www.loc.gov/item/2010647888/

March / April 2019 115 extent to which media can influence the executive order as well as the response mail and cheaply produced, this technol- viewer’s impression of historical events in a digital version of Lincoln’s papers. ogy enabled people to share and collect by emphasizing, distorting, or omitting Importantly, this event calls to question images of loved ones, popular figures, certain aspects of those events. issues related to the freedom of the press and important events. Charles Paxson and, considering Howard’s three-month produced and sold CdVs of slave chil- Civil War, News Journalism, and prison sentence, whether or not people dren in New Orleans during the Civil Photography who produce fake news should be pun- War. Harper’s Weekly published Paxson’s Abraham Lincoln is often credited for ished. images to accompany a public tour by the way in which he “grew to understand Beyond examining outright hoaxes, formerly enslaved people promoting and appreciate newspapers as a politi- students can also consider the role of abolitionist causes in the North in 1864. cal tool for reaching a wide audience” photography in shaping public assump- As students analyze Paxson’s images, they and “as a means for self-advancement tions about Abraham Lincoln and the can consider questions these images raise in his career as a politician.”9 During his Civil War more generally. For example, about race. They might also consider the political career and as president he nur- “biographers have noted that Abraham timing of the publication, just after the tured a positive relationship with the Lincoln was the first president to use New York draft riots, and the intended press and media of the time, noting that photography actively to present a effect of the public media campaign as “public sentiment is everything.”10 Given favorable public image of his admin- the Civil War dragged into its fourth the increasingly widespread nature of istration.”12 Here, students can explore year. Perhaps the CdVs of popular fig- the news media of the day, Lincoln also images of Lincoln to analyze the mes- ures also provide early examples of the had to contend with less than favorable sages he was presenting about himself as rise of celebrity culture and social media. press, including from Horace Greeley’s a leader and a person. New York Tribune. According to Allen At the same time, students have the Guelzo, “Far from deferring to wartime opportunity to explore a large body of Discourse Analysis Questions opinion, Lincoln instead took up the war photography taken during the Civil task of molding and shaping it him- War. Students may recognize the work What is notable about this image? 11 self.” For instance, Lincoln’s secre- of Mathew Brady and his contempo- What compositional elements tary, John Hay, sent material to several raries, who documented battlefields do you notice? newspapers during the time and some and the home front. Rather than read believed that Lincoln may have been these images as eyewitness accounts of What seems to be the message? involved directly in the political cor- the war, students can critically explore respondence. After the Emancipation the photographs to uncover their under- Proclamation (1862), Lincoln and his lying discourse and relevance within Making Connections to Today administration mounted a campaign to nineteenth-century American culture. By exploring innovation in informa- positively impact public opinion in the According to Allen Trachtenberg, Civil tion technology and the evolving role face of widespread criticism. War photographers sometimes manipu- of media from the eighteenth and nine- Perhaps the most significant example lated images to resemble popular notions teenth century, students have an oppor- of misinformation that Lincoln had to about the war or other illustrations of the tunity to go beyond presentism—viewing confront during his administration was time.13 Famously, the photographer of the the artifacts through the lens of modern the Civil War “Gold Hoax” in May “Rebel Sharpshooter” staged the shot, technology—towards deeper under- 1864. Hoping to manipulate the gold moving the body of a dead Confederate standing of the context in which the arti- market, Joseph Howard conspired to soldier to intensify the drama of the facts were produced. By analyzing digi- insert a fake report in two New York scene. This and other images from the tal history, students will contextualize newspapers from Lincoln alerting the time provide further evidence of the the history of journalism in the United American public about the conscription manner in which media both shape and States over time. They can continue their of 400,000 new troops. News of the are shaped by the cultural context. exploration by considering the role of draft and the implication that the war was In order to appreciate common notions news media during the civil rights era not favoring the North sent shock waves about photography in the nineteenth and the Watergate scandal and in more through the New York Stock Exchange. century, students can also study the recent developments within the field of Very quickly editors of other newspa- widely popular carte-de-visite (CdV) journalism. At the same time, this study pers became suspicious about the report photographs from the period (small calls to mind perennial questions about and soon revealed Howard as the culprit. prints mounted on card stock). Since the development of public opinion—“as Students can read the text of the fake CdVs could be sent easily through the the product of public-minded rational

Social Education 116 consensus”14 or the product of popular 6. Menahem Blondheim, “‘Public Sentiment is Reference (often commercial) media. An important Everything:’ The Union’s Public Communications 1. See for example the special section on media lit- Strategy and the Bogus Proclamation of 1864,” The eracy in Social Education 82, no. 4 (September aspect of understanding media is to con- Journal of American History 89, no. 3 (December 2018.) sider the extent to which it has impacted 2002), 873. 7. Andrea G. Pearson, “Frank Leslie’s Illustrated public opinion and been shaped by pub- Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly: Innovation and lic opinion over time. Imitation in Nineteenth-Century American Pictorial Reporting,” Journal of Popular Culture 23, no. 4 (Spring 1990), 82. Notes 8. Pearson, 89. 1. Robert B. Bain, “‘They Thought the World was 9. Gregory A. Borchard and David W. Bulla, Lincoln Flat?’ Applying the Principles of How People Learn Mediated: The President and the Press Through in Teaching High School History,” in How Students Nineteenth-Century Media (New York, N.Y.: Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Taylor & Francis Group, 2015), 2. Classroom, eds. M. Suzanne Donovan and John D. 10. The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, Bransford (Washington, D.C.: The National Meghan McGlinn Manfra is an Associ- Academies Press, 2005), 202–203. ed. Paul M. Angle (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 114. ate Professor of Social Studies Education in the 2. Lynn Hunt, “Against Presentism,” Perspectives on Department of Teacher Education and Learn- History: The Newsmagazine of the American 11. Allen C. Guelzo, “‘Public Sentiment is Everything:’ ing Sciences at North Carolina State Univer- Historical Association (May 1, 2002), www. Abraham Lincoln and the Power of Public Opinion,” sity. Her work on digital history and fake news historians.org/publications-and-directories/ Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages, ed. Lucas perspectives-on-history/may-2002/against-presentism, E. Morel (Lexington, Ky.: University Press of was partially funded by the Eastern Region n.p. Kentucky, 2014), 183. Teaching with Primary Sources program. Ideas 3. Peter Lee, “Putting Principles into Practice: 12. Borchard and Bulla, 29. expressed here are her own and do not reflect Understanding History,” in How Students Learn: 13. Allen Trachtenberg, Reading American those of the Library of Congress or the Eastern History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom, Photographs: Images of History Mathew Brady to Region TPS program. She can be contacted at: 183. Walker Evans (New York, N.Y.: Hill and Wang, [email protected]. 4. Ibid. 1989). 5. Hunt, n.p. 14. Guelzo, 174.

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