Public Memory in the Online World

Public memory is central to the relationship between journalism and memorialization. At the outset, both journalism and memorialization are intended for a mass audience. Journalism at its core seeks to provide individuals with information about what is new, the news of the day. Memorialization at its core seeks to provide a process through which to remember something, a person, place, or event. To remember is to be necessarily selective, at least in most cases. While one could record every detail of her or his life through technological means (and there are a few examples of this practice in action, such as Gordon Bell’s impressive and ambitious project),1 recording every detail of one’s life is not yet the norm in 2014. Currently, memorialization remains a selective process.2