Data and Digitization: 

After reading the next two chapters of the textbook, my knowledge of what Digital Humanities is and how it operates has definitely shifted and grown. Chapter 2 explains the difference between structured and unstructured data. Structured data is comprised of entities that are explicit and unambiguous, like numbers or true/false statements. Unstructured data is known to be more ambiguous and unclear, like natural language for instance. The distinction between these two concepts has ramifications for the ways that information can be used, shared, displayed, and analyzed. Unstructured data generally refers to texts, images and other digitally encoded information that hasn’t had a secondary structure imposed upon it. The concept of unstructured and structured data was very new for me to read and learn about. I am familiar with some of the ideas talked about in chapter 2, such as these two, but now I have a better idea of what unstructured and structured data refers to and how it works in the concept of Digital Humanities. 

In chapter 3, what stood out to me the most was the importance of HTML. HTML is described as a descriptive language that helps identify the structural elements of a document. This means it can identify paragraphs and headings, but does not need to know the specific meaning of the content being produced. That’s something that I don’t think I’ve ever thought of before, so it was interesting to read more about it and get a better technological understanding on. These concepts and ideas are all still new to me, as I am not really all that technologically advanced, hence one of the reasons I enrolled in the class. As for how these two readings can be applied to the project I have chosen, which is The Valley of the Shadow, the information I learned about HTML can structure and navigate the digital archives of the Civil War letters and diaries. And the information from chapter 2 can help allow me to bridge raw narrative history with computational analytics as I go about creating my project.


Comments

  1. Dr. MSeptember 11, 2026 at 7:04 AM

    Yes, exploring such a large database of unstructured data makes like yours makes you think about how it is structured and held together. I'm guessing it's built in HTML, but not sure about the cataloguing system. Will be fun to learn more about it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction

Image
Hey everyone my name is Caden, I'm a junior majoring in Journalism. I would like to use my journalism degree to become either a film, or sports journalist, being that I'm very opinionated and passionate about both of those things relatively equally. I'm from Atkinson, NH, where my family still lives with my dog Mav (pictured below, as well as myself... younger).
Read more

What is DH?

 Digital Humanities combines digital services with humanities materials. In its basic form, every digital humanities project starts with some kind of material. This could be texts, maps, sounds, media files, etc. While some materials are created digitally, most are not. This means that a process of filing, mediation, remediation, and data modeling is needed. The presentation of these materials is either web-based or offline. This could include platforms such as Google Sites or WordPress, or sites specifically used by digital humanists, such as Omeka, Manifold, or Scalor. Not all digital humanities projects are online. These can include hard drives, thumb drives, or other tangible materials. Another important distinction is that the presentation of the digital project is integral to, and relative to, the project's narrative. The project tells a narrative through the presentation itself. This could be how the materials are shown through spacing or importance listed within the project...
Read more

Intro!!!

Image
 Introduction :) September 2nd, 2026 Hiiii, my name is Mia, and I'm a Musical Theatre and Journalism double major. With my majors, I hope to become a social culture journalist, specializing in the arts and music. I also have an interest in photography and recently started doing travel writing snippets with some of my favorites (pictured above). I have always had an interest in the arts, and I am currently playing Wagner in one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, The Tragic Life of Dr. Faustus, with the theatre department here at UNH, and I'm VERY EXCITED. I was born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, but moved to the States about three years ago (English is my third language lol)
Read more