Myspace and MTV: how will future historians study the 21st century?

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. If you've ever written a social media post in the heat of the moment, you've potentially been unwittingly contributing to the historical record for future generations to explore. But will the fact that it will be joined by millions and millions of other records present a problem for researchers. How will future historians begin to make sense of our current data-saturated moment?

Matt Elton caught up with the historians Jane Winters and John Wills to find out. So we are today talking about how future generations might tell the histories of the present moment and the recent past and how thinking about that can help us make sense of how the 20th century, the 21st century might differ from other previous centuries in its records and in its histories. And I'm delighted to say that we're joined by two experts to talk us through some of those aspects and some of those thoughts. Hello, my name's Jane Winters. I'm a historian and professor of digital humanities at the School of Advanced Study in the University of London.

Hi, and I'm John Wills. I'm a professor in film and media at the University of Kent. Thank you both so much for being with us today. It is great to get your thoughts on some of these issues.

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