In recent years, the terms ‘fake news’ and ‘post-truth’ have entered into common parlance. The prevalence of social media has done much to aid the spread of conspiracy theories and false or hateful...Show moreIn recent years, the terms ‘fake news’ and ‘post-truth’ have entered into common parlance. The prevalence of social media has done much to aid the spread of conspiracy theories and false or hateful information online. Historian Sophia Rosenfeld has argued that social media platforms have created a ‘wild west climate’ in which fact and fiction are muddled and popularity rather than reliability dictates the type of information that is presented to users. The primary focus of this thesis is on the role archivists can play in preserving problematic and false information that has been created and spread on social media. This paper will focus on one particular case study of false and controversial information shared on social media: the so-called ‘Irish slaves myth’ or ‘Irish slaves meme’. One of the central questions of this paper is whether this content merits a place in an archive based on its importance as a historical record. Proceeding from this question, the paper will then consider the issues that an archival institution must address if it were to create such an archive.There are many special issues that an archival institution would have to consider when creating this archive, such as appraisal (determining the archival value of the material), preservation, arrangement, description, and ethics. This paper will study these issues as they apply to the creation of a hypothetical archive of the Irish slaves meme and it will attempt to offer some solutions.Show less
