The politics of heritage authorship: The case of digital heritage collections

Digital heritage, as with heritage until recently, has been seen largely untouched by a critical discourse. What is deemed to be digital heritage is seen as unproblematic. To this end, I develop a critical discourse, and argue that digital heritage is a deeply political concept and practice. The ascription of heritage metaphors to cultural materials in a digital format means that digital media has become embedded in the cycle of heritage value and consumption, and in the broader heritage complex, an institutionalised culture of practices and ideas. These legacies, I argue, are shaping the way cultural materials in a digital format are defined and known, how they are produced and consumed and what gets to count as being significant within institutional frameworks.