News coverage is often described as the "first draft of history." From the publication in 1690 of the first American newspaper, Publick Occurrences, to the latest tweet, news has been disseminated to inform its audience about what is going on in the world. But the preservation of news content has had its technological, legal, and organizational challenges. Over the centuries, as new means of finding, producing, and distributing news were developed, the methods used to ensure future generations' access changed, and new challenges for news content preservation arose. This book covers the history of news preservation (or lack thereof), the decisions that helped ensure (or doom) its preservation, and the unique preservation issues that each new form of media brought. All but one copy of Publick Occurrences were destroyed by decree. The wood-pulp based newsprint used for later newspapers crumbled to dust. Early microfilm disintegrates to acid and decades of microfilmed newspapers have already dissolved in their storage drawers. Early radio and television newscasts were rarely captured and when they were, the technological formats for accessing the tapes are long superseded. Sounds and images stored on audio and videotapes fade and become unreadable. The early years of web publication by news organizations were lost by changes in publishing platforms and a false security that everything on the Internet lives forever. In 50 or 100 years, what will we be able to retrieve from today's news output? How will we tell the story of this time and place? Will we have better access to news produced in 1816 than news produced in 2016? These are some of the questions Future-Proofing the News aims to answer.
Preface Acknowledgements Chapter One: Who Needs Yesterday's News? Losing the News News Users News Preservers Access to Preserved News Chapter Two: Newspapers The Newspaper Industry Why Newspapers Were Lost How Newspapers Were Preserved Newspaper Preservation Challenges A Newspaper Historian's View Chapter Three: Visual News The Rise of Visual News Why Visual News Was Lost How Visual News Was Preserved Visual News Preservation Challenges Photo Archive Users Chapter Four: Newsreels The Newsreel Industry Why Newsreels Were Lost How Newsreels Were Preserved Newsreel Preservation Challenges Archival Newsreel Collections An Artist's View of Newsreel Archives Chapter Five: Radio The Radio Industry Why Radio News Was Lost How Radio News Was Preserved Radio News Preservation Challenges A Network of Preservation Heroes Chapter Six: Television The Television Industry Why Television News Was Lost How Television News Was Preserved Television News Preservation Challenges Television Archive Users Chapter Seven: The Digital Turn Newspapers News Photography Radio and Television Converting Analog Archives to Digital Chapter Eight: Digital News Early Videotex Experiments CompuServe and Competitors The World Wide Web Why News on the Web (and Beyond) Was Lost Digital News Preservation Today Dark Alliance Case Study Chapter Nine: Challenges to News Archive Access Who Has An Archive of the Content I Need? How Can I Get Access to the Archive? Are There Tools That Will Help Me Find Specific Items in the Archive? I've Found What I Need: Will I Be Able to Use It the Way I Intend? Chapter Ten: What Next? The Current State of News Preservation Archival Challenges and Opportunities Avoiding Historical Amnesia Extra! Extra! Read More About It About the Authors Index
