Keyword – social history

Tófalvy, Tamás:

Where the Social History of Hungarian Digital Media and Theories of Interpretative Media History Meet

„Work in this area is just beginning; we need much more” – wrote Fred Turner (2017) about unearthing local, non-American cultural histories of the internet. Indeed, while the Anglo-Saxon and predominantly American past of digital media is relatively well-documented and researched (see Boczkowski 2004), about digital histories of the peripheral regions – whether in the Global South or in Central and Eastern Europe – little is known and written in the realms of social sciences. This paper attempts to reflect upon one methodological question regarding the possible narratives of the social history of Hungarian content provision: what kind of relationship could be established between research in this particular field and the Anglo-Saxon research tradition of interpretative technology and media history?

Keywords: content provision, cultural technology studies, historical narratives, Hungary, Internet history, media history, social history