National History Month: Continuing Relevance of Collective Memory

Continuing Relevance of History in Filipino Society

August is National History Month in the Philippines

Photo courtesy of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines

"The art of history writing is greatly underappreciated in this country."

(from the About page)

A meme satirizing the historian's career
Photo courtesy of Peabody Lament

Non-creative non-fiction? What does the Filipino people really consider history as? Last year, this history website commemorated National History Month (Buwan ng Kasaysayan) using a new lens. It was an attempt to survey the vast and lively Filipino online community in search of the relevance of history during this digital age. It has been widely considered that history in general is not the most popular discipline in the country. This is compounded by the relative lack of historians in the Philippines as compared to other nations. In the first place, it is not the most lucrative career path. If Richard St. John can list historians in his study of successful people, their success might be partly due to context. These historians have an environment which support a more sustainable career path, but even they have issues to encounter. For instance, the "old guard" looking down on younger historians who damage the academic world, and yet seek the spotlight as "public historians." Indeed, while it becomes harder to pursue the historian way, the benefits are still appealing, at least for historians abroad. For instance, Indeed estimates the average salary of a historian at USD 75,707 (PHP 3.87 million) a year. Besides monetary benefits, historians in the international scene tend to have more flexible schedules to suit their various activities, research included. How about the Philippines? SalaryExpert estimates the average salary of a historian at PHP 413,738 (USD 8,090) a year, up a mere three (3) percent from last year (inflation rate was 5.2 percent). As if this was not enough of a disincentive, historians are usually pegged at the standard work day. In a way, this stifles the opportunity to conduct various activities, which again includes research. The expected worst case scenario is unemployment, which the public perceives more often than not.

According to Google Trends, the online interest for history worldwide
has remained stable in the past five years, peaking at 82 this year.
A score of 100 means peak popularity.

So much about the historian way. Of course, success is not limited to the capacity of enjoying a hearty meal after research. As historians, the apparent disinterest of the population with history lies partly with the historian's work. How come similar social sciences such as political science and economics tend to attract more buzz than history, especially among the youth, whereas history has the power to make or break politicians and businessmen? This is the context wherein the Filipino Historian entered as it was launched to the online world in 2012. With the purpose of "bringing history to the Philippines and the world," this history blog has become a free medium with which thousands of people from every nation have come to appreciate history better. It has revolutionized the art of historiography in the Philippine web by sharing the sources and the references used by the articles. In light of the hardships of the historian way in the Philippines, a single author operating such tedious work for free is not deemed as sustainable. As for this author, while there are no clear and direct incentives like access to better resources, the fulfillment lies in the greater good of history. Nevertheless, this history blog is not the only site in the web wherein history is the niche, albeit not all of them might be in the same financial straits as this history blog. Considering the growing relevance of connectivity in the online community, it is deemed beneficial to have Filipino history websites surveyed of their impact today.

Assessing the influence of top history websites

According to Google Trends, the online interest for history in the Philippines
has been erratic in the past five years, peaking at only 54 this year.
Again, a score of 100 means peak popularity.

While no single metric may suffice to evaluate this impact, one factor considered in this survey is the popularity of the website itself. In the first place, driving traffic to one's website is a basic tactic. The initial problem in populating the list of top history websites of the Philippines is the lack of an actual list to begin with. Many website rankers do not categorize them as dealing with history, which makes their owners classify them under other categories such as personal, politics, local, government, arts, and society, among others. However, there are history websites which tend to stand out among them. Other than the Filipino Historian, which is this history blog, the websites to be ranked are Indio Bravo, Views from the Pampang, Filipino Genealogy Project, My Silay Heritage, Philippine History, The Kahimyang Project, The Filipino Historian (Ambeth Ocampo's blog of a similar name), It's Xiaotime!, Philippine Historical Association (PHA), Philippine National Historical Society (PNHS), Bagong Kasaysayan (BAKAS), Ngayon sa Kasayasyan, With One's Past, and Philippine-American War. Last time's list was retained for ample comparison on each one's progress. For reference purposes, two government websites on history, namely that of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) and of the National Archives of the Philippines (NAP), would be used as a benchmark since state-operated websites tend to attract a more sustainable stream of web traffic due to lasting demand. Since this is an initial list, there is the possibility of excluding other ranking history websites at this juncture. In addition, each website does not have similar amounts of content, which means varying drivers of web traffic as well. Thus, newer websites such as this history blog is at a disadvantage. However, this does not discount the paramount task of ranking Filipino history websites for the first time in the online world.

According to Alexa and SimilarWeb, two of the more renowned website rankers, the NHCP site ranked 4,765 and 6,341 in the Philippines, respectively, while the NAP site ranked 12,208 and 23,535, respectively, as of publishing date. This is an expected result as earlier discussed, but they performed slightly worse compared to last year's data. As for the aforementioned history websites, they are ranked by Alexa as follows:

1. The Kahimyang Project: 3,537
2. Philippine History: 5,039
3. It's Xiaotime: 5,555
4. Filipino Historian (Al Raposas): 22,910
5. Philippine-American War: ranked, N/A
6. Views from the Pampang: ranked, N/A
7. With One's Past: ranked, N/A
8. Indio Historian: ranked, N/A
9. Filipino Genealogy Project: ranked, N/A
10. Philippine National Historical Society: ranked, N/A
11. Silay Heritage: ranked, N/A
12. Philippine Historical Association: ranked, N/A
13. Ngayon sa Kasaysayan: ranked, N/A
14. Bagong Kasaysayan, unranked, N/A
15. Filipino Historian (Ambeth Ocampo): unranked, N/A

Meanwhile, they are ranked by SimilarWeb as follows:

1. The Kahimyang Project: 6,305
2. Philippine History: 9,683
3. Filipino Historian (Al Raposas): 15,494
4. It's Xiaotime: 21,792
5. Philippine-American War: 49,837
6. Views from the Pampang: 79,811
7. Indio Historian: 118,309
8. With One's Past: 130,050
9. Filipino Genealogy Project: 174,937
10. Philippine Historical Association: 334,573
11. Philippine National Historical Society: 788,039
12. Ngayon sa Kasaysayan: ranked, N/A
13. Bagong Kasaysayan: ranked, N/A
14. Silay Heritage: ranked, N/A
15. Filipino Historian (Ambeth Ocampo): N/A

While these website rankers have produced varying results, the following can be observed:

• The top history websites still ranked in the thousands level in the Philippine setting alone. This means more dismal numbers at the international stage. This also reinforces the prevailing idea of Filipino indifference to history despite these efforts to reach the online population.
• This history blog, the Filipino Historian, has noticeably climbed from the middle of the pack to the top tier despite being the youngest history website in the list (4th in Alexa from 5th last year, 3rd in SimilarWeb from 7th last year). The positive development for the rising star among Filipino blogs has carried on as it enters the new decade (2020s).
• History websites with more content than others such as the Kahimyang Project and Philippine History have led the rankings, especially since they represent more of a complex database of sorts than a simple blog. However, amount of content alone is not a deciding factor as similar sites such as Ngayon sa Kasaysayan and Views from the Pampang ranked lower.
• History websites with more personnel in charge of operations may also rank higher, as in the case of the Kahimyang Project and Philippine History, but this is not always applicable, as in the case of PHA, PNHS, and BAKAS.
• Since this survey excluded social media influence, Google Pagerank, MozRank, and other metrics, the websites ranked here may have more or less reach than they are credited for. However, it would also be unfair to discount the credibility of the metrics used so far.

Continuing importance of our national memory in the digital age

As the Philippines commemorates yet again its National History Month, the online society is increasingly permeating the consciousness of the populace. We have to continually figure how to advance the saysay (significance) in kasaysayan today. History cannot be confined only in the hallowed halls of renowned publications and elite fora, albeit their immense contribution to the discipline is indispensable. It is not that world wherein history progressed up to this day has to be destroyed in order to make it appear more attractive. History as trivialized? Perhaps, but the issue lies beyond superficial looks and appearances. Still, while there has been little attention paid to the power of demassified and online media in promoting history in the Philippines and beyond, it has to be remembered that at least one of them historians is trying to make strides to do just that despite his own limitations as a person. As this history website's motto goes, "bringing history to the Philippines and the world," not just for the rich nor the poor, neither for the elite nor the masses, but for all. This is the historian way of the single author writing somewhere in the archipelago.