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Post #1: A few Thoughts on the Impact of Digital Archives

 

After reading Ian Milligan’s Historians’ Archival Research Looks Quite Different in the Digital Age (2019), a few points made within this article concerning digital archives vs. physical and traditional archives led me to think about the variety of ways that archives do and will impact our society. Milligan points out the fact that before digital archives existed, researchers relied heavily on documents and resources that were either tangible or available for an in-person viewing for research, but with digital archives, there is often an abundance of material to research from one’s digital device.[1] As technology has positively impacted many facets of academia, it has benefited the many historians, researchers, and scholars who without it might lack access to desired material or would need to take strenuous actions to research certain documents (traveling to another country to review a document, reviewing a document in a highly-confidential facility, etc.). This being said, though digital archives can provide a multitude of material to the public for research, another point that Milligan made was something that struck me as truthful yet is admittingly something I do not think too often about: fabricated resources and media in an archival space.

I tend to not think as often as I should about these fabricated materials due to willing neglect, but because I tend to be too optimistic when looking forward to doing research. Milligan states that the fabrication of images and videos are often due to “deepfakes” which are products of artificial intelligence that can alter images or video clips.[2] I have come across a variety of sources that were indeed not of the original source and/or creator or have been altered from its original copy. These incidents further heighten my will to diligently complete research while being cautious of encountering more deep fakes. Ultimately, I am happy to have come across this definition of deceptive material as I have never heard the term “deep fake” before. I am glad that by including this definition within his article, Milligan, like many other scholars, are promoting society to be careful when completing research in digital spaces that seem to give us endless access to truthful and reliable sources, but can often include unreliable ones as well. Ultimately, despite the deep fakes, digital archives will continue to shift into one of the most fulfilling and beneficial resources that a researcher and historian can have.


[1] Ian Milligan, Historians’ Archival Research Looks Quite Different in the Digital Age, (The Conversation, 2019), https://theconversation.com/historians-archival-research-looks-quite-different-in-the-digital-age-121096.

[2] Ibid., Historians’ Archival Research.

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