Historical biases and how the truth was altered Essay

Taking into account the nature of historical truth, it cannot be viewed from absolutist position, but rather from relativist perspective. The values, dictated by the plastered epoch, determine the purpose and the context of history, so there is a number of historical biases (again, from modern viewpoint) in the writings, describing and explaining the past experiences. The paper is designed to focus on the main historical biases and highlight the influence of modern media on the construction of new biases.Due to the position that there is a plenty of historiographic schools, one can presume that each of them chooses specific symbol or aspect as a baseline and develops its argument through certain prism. In this sense, the book by Edwars Said, Orientalism, to great extent emphasizes the faultiness of Western historiographic approach to the diametrically opposite culture.The scholar writes The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe it is also the place of Europes greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and to the highest degree recurring images of the Other (Said, 1979, pp. 1-2). Orientalism therefore comprises the historically biased attitude towards the cultural severalty, so the author concludes that eastern studies cannot be completely independent from the polarization and confrontation between the both civilizations.Furthermore, social stratification determined the status of certain individual in society and consequently resulted in the creation of middle class or aristocratic approach to making historical notes, and, more importantly, unearthly approach had been predominant in this sense all over more than a thousand years the issues related to to heresy and Inquisition contributed to medieval historiography, whereas the social protest against religious dogmas was an overall Western historiographic framework in the 18th -20th centuries.Both approaches n aturally distorted objective reality in an attempt to fit it into intend Procrustean bed of sociopolitical context. Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that the purpose of history hasnt been static over the societal developmental course it has altered a number of times from the simple glorification of the certain rulers deeds to the formation of unexclusive consciousness and stereotypes.Historians, as the members of society, naturally shared most stereotypes and social convictions , even writing purely for the sake of history. Nowadays, historical biases are close-knit to the issues, which germinate in connection with social, gender and racial equality, so the modern media are concentrating on covering these issues and find out public opinion.Information therefore is presented is extremely available manner, which allows remembering the content of the article without any gratuitous reflections or more profound analysis. The raw information (news, editorials) has attra ctive cover, so the digestion and informational metabolism have been heighten over the last century, whereas the description of events still remains biased in terms of the authors political and social position, or personal views.On the other hand, the freedom of printed word prohibits the misrepresentation of facts, unless the interpretation of certain data still may vary among journalists this principle is widely used to countersink the most appropriate and suitable emphases, thus except the provision of recent news, media are responsible for creating images, persuading public and imposing certain moral or ethical evaluation of the event or phenomenon (for more utility and convenience, from the position of right and wrong).To sum up, it is impossible to eradicate historical biases historiography, like all descriptive and analytical sciences, follows relativist principles of minor or major truth. Nevertheless, with regard to high availability of historical writings, one has an fortune to analyze the positions of several historiographic schools and draw more independent conclusions.