Narrative Warfare: Media Literacy, Historical Revisionism, & How To Spot It

History Channel US had a program called "MysteryQuest", a spinoff of "MonsterQuest", which went into popular mysteries and the most popular theories about them. One of them was about Adolf Hitler, and the idea that he did not die in the bunker in 1945. This is the episode that covered said topic, and revealed a big find that hasn't been spread in the popular media in the US until the series that this episode inspired aired: Hunting Hitler.

The thing about film and television in particular is that it is a medium where someone other than you determines every element of what you see and hear. The good practice in documentary filmmaking (which this series, and the Hitler spinoff, claim to be) is exactly the opposite of proper academic work: the conclusion is determined first, and then the narrative framed to support the conclusion. Why? Because film and television, as with comics and novels, are media of narrative--storytelling--and not media of academic inquiry.

In itself, this is dangerous, but you have to work around it. The way this happens in an ethical production is that you don't put a narrative together until you have all of the information regarding your question of inquiry. Then your production, as you would with a proper academic paper, presents your findings- including your sources, properly cited and documented; the film narratives the story of the process, not the story of the subject of inquiry, which is what a proper ethical documentary does.

Mass-media works like this always get me looking at them with my arms crossed. Even if I find the claims credible, I want to look at their sources for myself, because I don't like getting fooled more than anyone else. This is why media literacy matters. You need it to tell when you're getting taken for a ruse cruise, same as why you learn how to deal with slick-talking hucksters in person.

I've had my issues with History's many documentary programs, treating some (e.g. Ancient Aliens) more like soft SF than non-fiction, but the big issue I have is the danger of historical revisionism being passed off this way when it's not true. Certainty of the past is a necessary element of a healthy culture; it's the foundation upon which the present rests and the future is built. I'm not one to want it uprooted lightly, but there are times when it must be done, and that's when new information comes to light that takes a myth and turn it into a lie.

The end of Adolph Hitler's life is one such myth-defining narrative, and it would be a major upheaval to find and verify information that he did not die in 1945 in the bunker in Berlin. (For you younger folks, it's as if you discover that Osama bin Laden didn't die when or where he's said to've died because that event is a myth-defining event for a generation. That's a world-upending revelation, especially if it turns out that the entire thing was a deliberate fraud.) Change the myth, change the culture, and from that you then change the the politics because what drives the politics is no longer the same. Revisionism is a big deal.

So, when you watch shows like these, you need to think that you're being told a story- not presented with facts. Unless and until you can read or handle those sources yourself, you must maintain a certain degree of doubt. This includes other media appearances; this is from an Infowars broadcast last month, which is meant to promote Season 3 of Hunting Hitler.

The revisionism isn't just about Hitler's death. It's also revising the narrative explaining the shift from World War 2 to the Cold War, and other myth-narratives explaining things to the culture and the nation. Learning how to read this stuff is vital to keeping control over yourself and your life these days. Few understand this. Narrative Warfare is real!