History Alumni Roundtable 2024: Social Media in History

Dr Antonio Sennis: Gossip in Medieval Europe

In the Middle Ages, just as today, gossip was considered an idle practice, a malicious habit that could endanger the peaceful coexistence of the members of a community and cause the corruption of the lives of individuals. However, gossip can indeed be analysed by historians as one of the tools that communities had at their disposal to maintain the unity, morals and values of their members. Gossip could also serve as a tool of social control, as it allowed the group as a whole to select leaders and control competing cliques and ambitious individuals among those cliques. Moreover, in the Middle Ages just as today, gossip was a culturally controlled game, with very important social functions. It could mark a group off from other groups. It could also eventually turn into scandal, aimed at demonstrating who was not worthy to be member of the group.

Dr Benet Salway: Gossip, rumour, and fake news in the Roman empire

Even without the advantages of print or electronic media, to judge from our literary sources, the Roman world was rife with gossip and rumour. Just as in today’s social media much of this spread in intangible or perishable forms that are now lost to us. However, this does not mean that we should underestimate their power. Indeed we can only understand some official public pronouncements as responses to popular rumours and conspiracy theories. Conversely, we also find examples of the Roman state organs propagating fake news for political purposes.

Dr Rebecca Jennings: Problem and letters pages in twentieth-century Britain

The proliferation of print media in the early and mid-twentieth century, catering to an increasingly diverse and niche readership, offered new opportunities for readers to share their experiences and thoughts with a community of other readers. In the interwar period, the expansion in readership of the national press and the emergence of a new and popular genre of women’s magazines, provided a space for readers to consult with ‘agony aunts’ about personal dilemmas in a public forum. By the 1960s and 1970s, the first British magazines aimed at a lesbian and trans readership were being produced and their letters pages enabled early attempts to forge a sense of shared identity amongst their readers in the context of considerable isolation and social taboos. This talk with explore how changing ideas about the ‘self’ and the increasing influence of psychological language and approaches encouraged individuals to reflect on their own feelings and share their private experiences with others, reshaping wider notions of gender and sexuality in the process.