Assignment #4: Part II

I found that this assignment was fairly easy to complete because Wikipedia was such a ready source of information. However, I don’t think that from the material available I was able to get a clear picture of the history of Valentine’s Day as a holiday. Some material was out of sequence, and I also relied entirely on one source because I knew that it would have a great deal of information on the subject. There was also no way for me to know whether the information on Wikipedia’s page is good without going through it’s source page and double checking its sources, which would be a time consuming process.

Overall I would say that the temptation is strong to rely on sources like Wikipedia for quick retrieval of information because it is so convenient. Correct information typically emerges over time and typographical and factual errors are weeded out. The real trouble with Wikipedia in my opinion is that you don’t know what state the information is in when you check it. While readers wait for digital democracy to pan out in the editing process, the information on the page in the meantime may not be entirely accurate. For this reason I can’t fully sympathize with Wikipedia’s stated objectives of making the store of human knowledge “available to all.” On the other hand, it is an extremely convenient source and perhaps an important educational tool, if only to get readers interested in more in-depth reading on their subject of interest.

The debate over Wikipedia itself can get fairly heated among particularly devout nerds, and a study a few years ago determined that on average it was as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica; a finding that the other publication of course rejected. I tire of the constant attacks against Wikipedia, acknowledging its flaws as a scholarly source. As long as articles are properly sourced and peer reviewed, I think that it is a fine source for casual interest reading, and as a nexus site to research relevant topical sources; it just shouldn’t be relied on as a single source, as I did in my post below.

Assignment #4: Part I

The following brief history of Valentine’s Day is taken from the history section on its Wikipedia page. I was surprised to find that February 14^th, St. Valentine’s Day, commemorates a saint or a number of saints about whom very little is known: “Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14.” An ancient Roman fertility festival also apparently fell on Februrary 15, although it is uncertain if there is a correlation.

The first recorded association of Valentine’s day and romance was Chaucer’s 1382 poem Parlement of Foules. The poem outlines a fictional tradition as the context for the marriage of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, although apparently Chaucer referred not to the February 14^th holiday but the May 2^nd holiday for Valentine of Genoa. A “High Court of Love” was set up in Paris on Valentine’s Day in 1400 to arbitrate marriage contracts and deal with domestic disputes. Valentine’s Day is mentioned by Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1600-1601).

In the 1840s the holiday was reinvented, especially in America. The first mass-produced Valentine’s were crated by Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts: “Her father operated a large book and stationery store, but Howard took her inspiration from an English valentine she had received, so clearly the practice of sending Valentine's cards had existed in England before it became popular in North America. The English practice of sending Valentine's cards appears in Elizabeth Gaskell's Mr. Harrison's Confessions (published 1851).” Eventually this grew into the modern tradition of giving not only cards but also chocolates and other presents to romantic partners but also among friends, family and loved ones more generally.

Assignment #3

The site I selected to review is the home site for PBS’ Frontline and American Experience production, The Mormons. The site hosts the entire 4-hour documentary which is viewable online in two 2-hour parts using Quicktime or Windows Media Player. Also available on the page are links to purchase the documentary on DVD, the transcript of the program and individual interviews, critical press reactions, the journalistic guidelines which the documentary follows, as well as an extensive fact sheet on the history of who the Mormons are and an interactive historical map of their westward trek.

This website is extremely useful for students or simply for anyone interested in reading further about the origins, history and evolution of the LDS Church. It’s easy to reach most sections on the site from the home page, and links to the other sections are visible along a bar menu at the top of each page that is standard across the site. In that respect, the site is highly accessible. In general the site design is very informative, although some sections contain so much information that it might be overwhelming to more casual readers – fortunately there are simpler tools such as the interactive historical map and the summary for educators that simplifies and breaks down the documentary’s themes. The site also tries hard to be functional: for instance, inset tables of contents for the FAQ allow readers to click on a link and jump to the relevant answer.

The content and presentation on the site is highly professional. The documentary, in total about 4 hours long, is detailed and contains excerpts of historians, authors and theologians on the subject. It is scholarly in its approach but also narrative enough to appeal to a wider popular audience. The viewable segments are high quality and are split into chapters ranging typically about 10-15 minutes in length. Assuming the user has a relatively fast internet connection, the video streaming is easy to use and delivers a pretty good approximation of the complete documentary for free.

It is my opinion that hosted content like this – which not only provides the full version of the video itself but also supports the documentary with numerous other facts and resources for further reading, outlines the key themes and philosophy of the report, and provides transparent access to the methods and standards employed in its creation – is one of the best uses of the internet for such projects. The support for educators especially is extensive, including material for potential lesson plans as well as special ordering links. The streaming media allows free access to the program in its entirety. Overall I would give PBS high marks on the site’s design and usability. The quality of the documentary itself is very good and I personally learned some things about the Mormons from watching it, and I would recommend this site to anyone who wants to learn more about the LDS Church and the history of this religion.