I've made various references over the first couple of weeks about how we are going to able to authenticate what is produced now in 20 or 30 years when it comes to future historians looking to make studies of what goes on in this country. And at least in part, the reference to David King's workaround Stalin is the fact that through careful archival work, he has found the before and after photographs so you can make the direct comparison. Now, many of the examples I used from four by six the website in the first week are where people can immediately identify what the issue is with a problem. I posed the question to what, how are we going to verify what is happening in the future. Well actually it's been quite interesting in the media reporting in the recent past. Because, there is now a proposal, in Britain at least, to quote archive the digital age. And what we find is within the British library, they have taken the responsibility along with for other copyright libraries to copy, if you like, the entire internet as published in this country. Most people do not think about it in these terms, but if you publish a Twitter feed that is actually copy written, nominally you own it. You're making it public, there's no charge involved, but because it is put into the public domain the British library has the right to have a copy of it. Now generally that means that everything published in this country. One copy is given to the British library. Now, up at, Saint Pancras. it used to be based in the British museum. Which is about 150 meters away from where we're filming just at present. Now we have the proposition. And the little quote, I've taken from the BBC's site, rather emphasize this. millions of tweets, Facebook status updates and even a blog about a bus shelter in the Shetlands will be preserved for the nation. And you can follow this up through the web links on the course itself, this suddenly puts everything that is happening today, whether it be written or images, within a slightly different context. If it is published on a UK site there is going to be a back up of it. Now, the British library already provides a, a resource for historians in London and from those who can gain access from the rest of the world, to look at previous material. It's a very important resource with regards to books which are long out of print and may not be available anywhere else in the country. I certainly used it for my masters research at various points of time. Now we've got the possibility that what is happening in the real world so to speak, news feeds, as I mentioned, Twitter, Facebook, anything that is put as a blog or a Facebook, sorry, a blog or a website more generally. A copy, a snapshot is going to be taken. Now that is a positive thing from a historical context but there have been a number of recent events where what has been put into the public domain has become very contentious, and the one that I'm going to just focus on is something that's happened in the relatively recent past. And that's the, the death of the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Now, Margaret Thatcher was the leader of the conservative party between 1975 and 1990. And, certainly is one of the most, charismatic figures in British politics during the 20th century. However she also did divide opinion in, in polar terms. rather like a Marmite other yeast-based products are available. she rather divided opinion to either loving her or hating her. And, again, this comes from another BBC website in the recent past. There was a very strange reaction in Britain, to Mrs Thatcher's death. thinking about previous lectures Joseph Stalin could not understand how the British electorate in 1945 chose to replace Winston Churchill with his wartime coalition deputy Clement Attlee as Prime Minister in the mid 45 elections. in the same way people around the world may admire Mrs Thatcher may have a view of her from the recent film starring Meryl Streep, the Iron Lady. And be surprised to learn that there is a fairly furciferous campaign in this country, or was at the time of her death, to denounce what she did as much as praise her contribution. So the quote from here is that, this comes from various commentators that Twitter has become, quote, a game changer, that you can have immediate responses put out to events. You now see it with journalists mining Twitter feeds to actually develop, if you'd like, some of their written prose. one of the things that seems to have changed is the willingness to show discretion. And certainly Twitter and Facebook allows the immediate response to be put out without reflection. Now we have an issue where at various backup points everything that is in the Twitter feed. Everything that is on Facebook will be copied by the British library for UK sites, and the reason I raised this is the BBC rounded out the commentary on what was happening on both the positive and the denunciation of Mrs. Thatcher as a political leader. Saying, the British library has just started archiving all UK websites. The unique reaction to her death will be preserved. Now, I'd like you to go through and look at this in your own time. And think of other instances where, major political leaders when they had passed away, have been dealt with both adulation and to a certain degree of revulsion. There was another controversy in terms of a song from the Wizard of Oz reaching number two in the British charts the year that Mrs.Thatcher died. it was taken as being symbolic of the relief of those who didn't like Mrs. Thatcher that she passed away. someone who has dementia, who is 87 dying of a stroke doesn't to my mind sound like a joking matter, but think about some of the things I said more broadly. We are going to have those snapshots, the images, the prose to look back on. How are we going to be interpreted as a society? Given the fact that this is the type of news reporting that we have at present. I'm not criticizing the news reporting, but the events behind it. As i said Mrs Thatcher, and the taboo of speaking ill of the dead. Was the headline from the BBC reflecting back what happened in the recent past.
