There is no historian, only Zuul. And like the 1984 Ghostbuster’s demonic entity, they too control who gets through the door.

And with that reference I have absolutely aged myself.  I am finally an Old Person™.  Incredibly delighted with that development. Ahem… Get off my lawn.

Right, let’s get down to business.

Gatekeeping. What might evoke images of bespectacled hipsters waxing poetically about their favourite band which you absolutely have never heard about, (they only played that one gig on a Tuesday in November in their brother’s cousin’s sister’s best friend’s super underground dive bar), *deep breath* is actually a really important element of bias in writing and reading history. And what I mean by that is: choosing a topic is a form of bias in itself.

As an historian, you act as the gatekeeper of information. You are choosing what topics to share with your audience, because they interest you, because you think they are important, or sometimes, because your editor assigned you the task. In all of these circumstances, the choice of topic exists because of someone’s bias. And that is okay!

We often assume bias is a bad thing, it certainly can be if not acknowledged and considered, but it doesn’t need to be. Everyone is biased. It is a fact of life. It is impossible as a human being to not be, so instead of trying to pretend otherwise, we need to acknowledge it. We are going to tackle bias – and how to address it – in this series in much more depth, but for today we will look at it through the lens of topic selection.

I love beer, in particular, and most especially, I love craft beer. And to add an additional layer to that, I love history. Adore it. Have been obsessed with it since I was a little kid. I am a multi-genre history loving woman myself, but certainly lean to medieval Irish and UK history or the Vikings or Victorian spiritualism or the Black Death or frankly anything spooky.

So, to be able to combine those interests together into a research topic is a personal favourite of mine. I love both of these elements so much. History and beer. And I have decided, because I love them, that everyone else should as well and I am going to write about them in a way designed to convince you of that.

This doesn’t sound particularly sinister, but it can be. Think of all the ways people write to try to convince you of a certain standpoint, or view, or historical ‘fact’. So when you are reading, and indeed, when you are writing yourself, keep this in mind. But even choosing the topic can be this way.

The writer or podcaster or presenter or editor has decided that this particular topic is important and you need to know about it. So they talk about it, write about, and present it. But why did they choose the topic?  Is it timely? Did they pick it because it’s a personal love of theirs? Was it assigned to them by where they work? Was it written at a time that seems suspect ie was it chosen at this moment because something else is happening in the world? What are they trying to convince you? And why are they writing it? What might be their intentions on choosing this particular topic?

Sometimes it’s simple- they think that this is interesting and you should know about it. Sometimes it is people are getting this wrong and I am here to correct the narrative. And sometimes intentions can be more shadowy. But keep in mind not everything is a conspiracy, though in media sometimes it certainly is. Occam’s razor and all that. 

As gatekeepers, writers and all media creators, we need to consider why we are choosing our topics. What they mean to us, and why we might have decided to talk about this particular thing at this particular time. And as readers or consumers of media, we need to ask ourselves the very same question: Why?

So in summary, even choosing a topic is showing your bias. But that is okay, we are all biased, you just have to own it in your own writing- more on that later. Equally, when you are reading or consuming content, think about why they might want this particular topic out and why now? Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg on this topic.

Thank you and stay tuned for the next episode when we talk about what exactly is a fact? And who determines this?

Also, I am building out this as a possible online class or course, if you are interested in something like this in the future, please reply to this email so I can get an idea of interest or let me know on social media- @braciatrix on Instagram and Bluesky and the same on Facebook.

Cheers!