Journalists and Historians: The Unlikely BFFs

Journalists think historians are boring and historians think journalists sensationalize everything. Ruth Dunley has a foot in both camps and will discuss how, when it comes to social media and technology, each discipline can learn from the other in ways that were unthinkable only a few years ago. From databases to Tweeting and crowd-sourcing, historians and journalism face similar challenges — not only has our game been changed by social media such as Twitter and Facebook, but also by the rapid expansion of digitized records, online catalogues and websites. While historians have the luxury of time when it comes to adapting to this new frontier, journalists facing the extinction of print editions across North America have been forced to grapple with these questions at a much faster pace. What are the tools that they have exploited in the search of the first draft of history that can benefit those of us who want not just the first draft, but the final draft?