Is the Award-Winning Series, Innovation Nation, also Innovative History?
S7. Beyond collecting: Exploring films as a means of communication for (rural) historiansIntroduction
What makes good historical narrative? A compelling argument, one that uses the historic evidence in thought-provoking ways; factual and attention grabbing; authentic and relevant. This session will assess excerpts from a current TV production, CBS’s Innovation Nation, and will judge one 4-minute history segment based on these criteria.
Innovation Nation aired for the first time in 2014. This three-time Emmy-award winning production results from a partnership between The Henry Ford and Litton Entertainment. Each ½ hour episode includes a 4-minute segment featuring a curator addressing a historic topic. Each curator views this as a 4-minute window-of-opportunity to convey historical insights. The narrative takes the form of short and pithy answers to a series of questions asked by the star, Mo Rocca, and delivered to viewers of Saturday morning TV – children between the ages of 8 and 14. Critics have nominated Innovation Nation for numerous awards and it has received three Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Special Class Series (2015) and Outstanding Writing for a Special Class Series (2016, 2020).
But what do historians think?
The presentation will start with a viewing of segments from one episode featuring one topic that I have recorded [to date, options include tractors (2018), hay, eggs, Luther Burbank, and George Washington Carver (2019), weathervanes, tomato harvesters, and apples and cider (2020)]. After a short overview of the research, writing, and production (aka publication) process, then the audience can determine if the curator accomplishes her goals of conveying historical insights to the audience. What can she do better, given that she controls only her own historical interpretation; TV producers transform more than one hour of interview footage plus B-roll of the setting into one 4-minute Innovation Nation segment (the publication). If the model works, anyone could craft a 4-minute historical narrative and extend history’s reach. The audience can be the judge.