Historical narrative and significance in the communication of Canada’s national museums in facebook

Abstract

Heritage plays a decisive role in the construction of citizenship and identities, hence the responsibility that cultural institutions, such as museums, have in articulating their proposals and discourses. This research has analyzed the discourse issued by the five most active Canadian national museums on Facebook during 2020 through their posts, in terms of historical narrative and the approach chosen when dealing with the historical significance of a painting, work of art, etc. The results show a constant and planned activity with discourses dominated by traditional historical narrative, and an approach, in terms of the type of historical significance given to a piece, mainly focused on the relevance and importance of heritage elements in the Canadian collective imagination. The results contribute to a better understanding of the development of historical thinking in the field of non-formal education in the digital context. As there is hardly any research in this area, this research constitutes a new line of investigation in the context of history and heritage education.