New Historical Criticism is a field of literary scholarship which relies on the idea that it is not so much the actual events that shape history as it is an individual’s perception of those events. Followers of this particular form of criticism believe that it is the writers and the documenters of news and ideas that shape the realities of anyone who will later study these historical accounts. With the proliferation of multiple cable news networks and the capabilities offered by the World Wide Web, one can marvel at the idea of New Historical Criticism, acknowledging that there is, in fact, some merit in following this particular mode of thinking.
In the age of the internet and twenty-four hour media coverage, it is not necessarily the news, but the events the media gatekeepers choose to air and the tone and content projected for the viewing public that shape our thoughts and attitudes towards what is occurring in the world today. By acknowledging the sets of circumstances of today as what they will offer as fodder for historical researchers of tomorrow, one can only believe that this is just as things always have been. The universal themes of human nature portrayed by the actor’s of Shakespeare’s day have not changed. Instead, the modes of delivery have become more diverse and plentiful for the Age of Information. There seems little doubt that the generation of the twenty-first century may view a day such as September 11, 2001 through what the broadcast news opted to film and the pages of eyewitness accounts that were chosen for publication, achieving a totally different understanding than those who lived and experienced the day for themselves. Not implying bias, New Historical Criticism suggests that there is (and always has been) a degree of definite subjectivity in the hearts of those creating any type of documentation, be it fiction or their version of reality.
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