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Salem is alive and well, even in the new millennium. Over three hundred years have past since the trials and yet they are ever present on the World Wide Web as part of the popular consciousness of not only the United States, but also the world.
The sites included in this category are not chosen for their historical accuracy or their moving testimony of those executed. Entertainment is the main quality that each of these sites share. The National Geographic interactive site, for instance, attempts to create an atmosphere in which the audience can virtually become one of the accused and can participate in a choose your own adventure fantasy. This site employs the latest technology and detailed graphics design in order to allow the audience to "experience" the trials.
Popular Culture sites, like the above, help to "Disneyfy" the Salem Witch Trials. They take this portion of American history and turn it into a tourist attraction - many times focusing on the tragedy while at the same time lessening its tragic significance by making it a melodrama distant from our lives today. The sites within this category show witches and broomsticks, black cats and pentagrams, preying upon the superstitions of our society today.
