Public History and Digital Platforms: A Case Study between Brazil and France
The rise of negationism is a transnational phenomenon. Specifically, historical negationism has promoted a “Public History” market as a form of intellectual opposition to this phenomenon. Thus, this paper aims to analyze aspects of this intellectual “market of opinions” which is structured in opposition to historical negationism in two different social contexts. The first is the Brazilian case, where “public history” has promoted new dynamics of interaction between “academics” and “digital influencers”. In other words, “intellectuals” in Brazil have found new spaces on digital platforms to disseminate their production, promoting new challenges on public debate. The second is the French case, where “public history” has been institutionalized through master's courses oriented to digital content.
What this research has identified is the existence of a link between the media market and the circulation of different modes of intellectual engagement. In Brazil, in certain respects, this market is constructed in opposition to the university. It means that the production of “public history” promotes a paradox - at the same time it creates a network of opposition against historical negationism, this opposition is subordinated to the interests of the cultural industry, specifically those related to media market strategies. In the French case, this link with the media market is also identified, but there are forms of institutional regulation of these practices through cultural institutions, which is not identified in Brazil. Finally, it is a question of problematizing a market of production and circulation of “public history” in times of historical negationism and digital platforms which is still to be debated in the field of sociology.