Future-Proofing the News: Preserving the First Draft of History

by Kathleen A. Hansen, Nora Paul

Overview

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newscasts were rarely captured and when they were, the technological formats for accessing the tapes are long superseded.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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442267121
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	01/26/2017
Pages:	274
Sales rank:	1,166,836
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kathleen A. Hansen is Professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities.

Nora Paul is Director of the Minnesota Journalism Center in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota.

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

It is easy to fall into the trap of believing that everything is available on the internet, since so much is online there. Then a book like this comes along and you realize how much is actually missing.... This book provides a fascinating glimpse at some technologies of our past and shows how fragile paper, cellulose tape, and other media really are. Even when an attempt at archiving is made, it is often destroyed by fire, flood, or even self-destruction. If you are at all interested in history and news, this book is well worth the read.

Online Searcher

The authors wrote this book in a way that will appeal to the general public. However, librarians, archivists, historians, journalists, and other academics studying the news industry and the preservation of news will greatly benefit from this book. The greatest strength of the book is how the authors logically take the reader through detailed histories of a variety of news outlets, preservation challenges, and who is handling the preservation and access. The authors argue that we cannot allow history to repeat itself when it comes to losing valuable news content, and offer reasons why and strategies we can implement to ensure the longterm preservation of news being created today.

New England Archivists Newsletter

★ 03/01/2017
Preserving primary source information has never been an easy task, and today's digital environment makes the effort challenging. Hansen and Paul (both, journalism & mass communication, Univ. of Minnesota) have written an accessible and informative text on the preservation of primary source material from the analog and digital eras. Ten chapters describe the issues relating to newspaper, visual news, radio, and digital source preservation. Two additional chapters discuss the individuals involved and the current and future difficulties and opportunities. Each section includes real-world obstacles and how a variety of institutions (universities, news organizations) continue to address the issue of preserving history. The authors chose to concentrate on American institutions and organizations. Those consulted or discussed include the American Antiquarian Society, UCLA, and the Library of Congress, among others. This is not a "how-to" manual. Instead, this volume centers on descriptions about the preservation process along with the inherent challenges, past and future. VERDICT This would be a helpful resource for librarians, archivists, administrators, and anyone who wants to learn more about how the materials of today will be available for researchers of tomorrow.--Jacqueline Parascandola, Columbia Univ. Libs., New York

Library Journal

This book is an important intervention in the history of American news media.. .. Future-Proofing the Newsis a compelling call-to-action for all archivists, news producers, librarians, cultural heritage professionals, and users to band together in an effort to future-proof the news.

The American Archivist

Documentation, scope, readability, and structure make this a 'should read' text for media historians as well as those who use these resources for other purposes.

American Journalism: A Media History Journal

If journalism is anything close to the first draft of history, preserving it is a critical archival task. This important book carefully documents 300 years of such archival efforts, persuasively demonstrating the historical importance and significant challenges of preserving these archives—and the alarming consequences if we fail. Hansen and Paul have issued a call to action for all news producers, archivists, historians, readers, and audiences to work together to future-proof the news.

Kathy Roberts Forde

Journalism and communications professors Hansen and Paul make the case that future generations will want access to today’s news just as we expect access to yesterday’s news. Unfortunately, access isn’t always possible, even in the digital age, due to the factors that they identity and explore. Even when reporting has been preserved, there can be challenges to its usability: limited availability, restricted access, retrieval problems, and format incompatibilities. Hansen and Paul argue that more emphasis must be placed on capturing nascent media and supporting projects that assure older media are transferred to current standards for accessibility. Memory institutions, like museums, universities, and libraries, have largely been the recipients of historical news archives, and their efforts at preservation, restoration, and providing access for historical fact-checking, context, and comprehension are critical for society. Extensively documented with resources, and filled with colorful examples from pre-revolutionary American newspapers to early radio, newsreels, and TV to the cyber world, this is a valuable contribution to the history of journalism.

Booklist

Journalism and communications professors Hansen and Paul make the case that future generations will want access to today’s news just as we expect access to yesterday’s news. Unfortunately, access isn’t always possible, even in the digital age, due to the factors that they identity and explore. Even when reporting has been preserved, there can be challenges to its usability: limited availability, restricted access, retrieval problems, and format incompatibilities. Hansen and Paul argue that more emphasis must be placed on capturing nascent media and supporting projects that assure older media are transferred to current standards for accessibility. Memory institutions, like museums, universities, and libraries, have largely been the recipients of historical news archives, and their efforts at preservation, restoration, and providing access for historical fact-checking, context, and comprehension are critical for society. Extensively documented with resources, and filled with colorful examples from pre-revolutionary American newspapers to early radio, newsreels, and TV to the cyber world, this is a valuable contribution to the history of journalism.

Booklist