When: 12 November 2025, 9.30-17.15 hrs.
Where: University of Groningen, room tba
Coordinators: Nathalie Fridzema and Susan Aasman (both RUG)
ECTS: 1 EC
For: PhD’s and research master students who are a member of a Dutch Graduate Research School (onderzoekschool). Students who are members of RMeS will have first access.
For details and registration, please visit the RMeS website
Contrary to common perception, the web is far from permanent. Websites are constantly updated, restructured, or taken offline, making the web a far less stable source than print, digitised archives, or audiovisual collections. This ephemeral nature poses a challenge for researchers relying on web sources. Still, it also underscores the growing significance of web archives as a resource for contemporary historical and media research. Web archives provide access to past versions of websites, allowing scholars to explore online cultures, political discourse, and media practices that would otherwise be lost.
While other forms of born-digital material—such as social media—have received substantial scholarly attention, including dedicated projects, methodologies, and research labs, the study of archived websites remains a smaller but expanding field. Understanding web archives requires a distinct approach, as they differ fundamentally from platform-based data or AI objects. Using archived web materials in research requires a specific operational lens, theorized as a ‘web-minded approach’. This perspective stresses the need to consider the specific characteristics of archived web pages, to be mindful of the processes behind their archiving, and to apply methods appropriate for working with such material.
Traditional source criticism or conventional methodologies in the discipline of media studies alone are insufficient for engaging with web archives. Researchers must develop a critical understanding of how web content is captured, stored, and retrieved, recognising the selective and constructed nature of these archives. Furthermore, the archived web as a source presents specific data and metadata that are to be studied with appropriate methods and software. Reproducing or citing archived content requires careful consideration, as web archiving exists within an uncertain legal and ethical framework, with questions surrounding ownership, consent, and the rights of both website creators and users. Working with archived websites thus demands an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing from digital humanities, media archaeology, and internet studies. This workshop will introduce participants to web-archived materials, combining theoretical insights with practical skills and tools, following three themes.
- What are web archives, and archived websites, and where to find them?
- Introduction to the basics of web archives, archived web materials, and research practices.
- Assessing and navigating web archive infrastructures, including the Wayback Machine and national repositories.
- Analysing web archived material and data.
- Conceptual and methodological approaches to studying archived websites.
- Introduction to tools for extracting and analysing archived web data.
- Ethical considerations when working with web archives.
- Issues of consent, ownership and ethical use of sensitive material.
- Representational bias in web archives and digital heritage.
By the end of the workshop, participants will have a foundational understanding of web-archived materials, be aware of key theoretical and methodological debates, and be equipped with practical strategies or frameworks to begin integrating web archives into their research.