How do web sites represent different approaches to history on the Internet?

After reviewing four websites: The Valley of Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War, The History Channel, Do History, and National Museum of American History, I discovered two distinctive approaches to history on the internet. The first approach is represented by The Valley of Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War and Do History. I refer to their style as the scholarly or non-profit approach. Both have very specific information on their topics, and appear to be designed with education as the principal objective. While these Web Pages display a comparatively less attractive format, they are still well designed and very easy to navigate. For instance, students looking for letters that circulated among members of the Evans-Sibert Family during the period of the Civil War could simply go to the search function and enter in “Evans-Sibert” and all the records of such letters would come up. Such features are very handy for research, especially because they facilitate easy access to an abundance of primary sources.

While the civil war site contains a massive amount of primary sources, the Do History site is designed to be a teaching tool. It contains instructions on how to use primary sources for effective research, as well as a guide on how to teach using the website. This guide provides variants calibrated to different educational levels, from middle school to college. It is very detailed and could definitely aid new teachers with their curriculum.

The other approach to history on the web could be referred to as the marketing approach. Both The History Channel and National Museum of American History use this approach on their websites. These websites have an extremely well designed layout and graphic designs. However, their aim appears to be promoting and advertising events. These include shows and specials, in the case of The History Channel, and events and exhibits at the National Museum of American History. Much of the information on these sites is not very detailed or in-depth. In fact, the only information useful for research are the old T.V. clips of historical events and speeches on The History Channel website. While I am sure that all the productions promoted in these websites are well researched and informative, the web sites themselves are not.

The latter approach to history on the web does not make the Internet the actual source of information. Instead, it uses the Internet to support other forms of media or content. If one wished to research a topic by using these sites, one would not actually gain much information from the sites themselves. Instead, one would need to use the sites to find out when and where one could view a program or exhibit containing the required information. For example, if someone wanted to do research on the slave trade, they could go to the National Museum of American History site in order to ascertain what exhibits they have on display. It turns out that the closest exhibit available would be the West African Slave castle exhibit.

Unfortunately, since these companies rely on viewers and visitors for income, they gear their programs more towards education than legitimate scholarly research.