Abstract
Future-Proofing the News is dedicated to “tomorrow’s seekers of yesterday’s news.” It makes a compelling case that those history-seekers need a stronger commitment to preservation or the record of today’s news will disappear.
Hansen and Paul thoroughly document past mistakes in saving news archives in this part history of the media and part plea for preservation. They also clearly outline the challenges of archiving news in today’s digital era. They examine various media forms as they detail each medium’s history and challenges. Chapters are dedicated to newspapers, visual news, newsreels, radio, television and digital news.
Chapter 1 makes clear that preservation of news content—whether printed or broadcast—has always been somewhat of an afterthought, complicated by every change in technology. The chapter attempts to explain why anyone should care whether news is preserved. Some people are directly affected: journalists, historians, researchers, lawyers, filmmakers and news hobbyists. Others who do not easily fall into those categories may be tempted to dismiss the importance of preserving news—at least until they need to track down their own little piece of history. Trying to document your great-great grandfather’s role in the Civil War? That is when a lack of news archives may hit home for the general public.
Chapters 2 through 6 examine various media forms, offering interesting historical anecdotes about each medium and outlining specific challenges to preservation.
The history of both newspapers and newspaper preservation is the focus of Chapter 2. Downplaying preservation is not new to the digital age. Attempts to save newspapers always have been haphazard. The chapter notes, it is only thanks to individual collectors that the public has access to colonial newspapers. Dispatches from the Associated Press between 1846 and the 1930s were tossed after 10 years, a policy endorsed by the Associated Press. The chapter explains the development of microfilm and the role of libraries in newspaper preservation. And it details the archival challenges posed by poor paper and microfilm quality.
In Chapter 3, the authors examine the use of photos and graphics dating back to the Civil War. They spell out the obstacles facing image preservationists: space, legal issues and a lack of guidelines for archiving. Even a well-intended plan to digitize historical newspaper photos was stymied when some newspapers sued the digitizer, saying the company had failed to deliver on promises. The authors get to the heart of the photo preservation problem with this sentence: “There is a tension between preserving what has been created amid the pressure of creating new material.” The dilemma of limited preservation resources is a recurring theme in the book.
Chapter 4 on newsreels starts with a fascinating anecdote on a Yukon Territory village that became the last stop in the town-to-town distribution of silent films in the 1920s. Rather than return the films to movie companies, the town put the film canisters in an unused swimming pool and topped them with dirt. The films—obviously chock-full of history—were accidentally discovered when a bulldozer plowed them up while constructing a parking lot in 1978. These kinds of anecdotal gems enliven a topic that—in other hands—could be dull reading. The newsreel chapter also spells out archival challenges beyond scarce resources: the fragile nature of film.
Radio, the subject of Chapter 5, faced even more daunting problems. Early news aired live, never recorded, making radio broadcasts perhaps the least preserved form of news. It was not until World War II that live broadcasts on the East Coast were saved for broadcast to West Coast audiences at a later time. Much of what was preserved is thanks to individual collectors. One of the most interesting parts of the radio chapter details Michigan State University professor Michael Stamm’s efforts to track down regional radio recordings. “It’s a whole different thing to hear someone doing the news from Texas who is from Texas,” Stamm tells the authors.
Chapter 6 highlights similar archiving issues for television. Many early programs were live. Archival efforts initially were made for business purposes—reusing snippets for future broadcasts. Little effort was aimed at preservation. Much of local television news film was discarded after the move to electronic newsgathering. Physical issues—deterioration and storage conditions—hamper archiving.
In Chapter 7, the authors shift to an explanation of the early days of digital production and how it complicated archiving. One of the most telling anecdotes in the entire book is the story of the TIME magazine photographer who by chance remembered and found the famous photo of Bill Clinton embracing Monica Lewinsky in a rope line. Although the photographer found this photo, he notes that other photographers at the event had shot it as well. But the ease of deleting digital images means much of history is thrown away or forgotten.
Chapter 8 looks at the early days of digital news. News organizations clearly did not recognize the importance of the web audience or web coverage. The most striking demonstration of that is the fact that few newspapers captured even their website’s first day. Archiving problems were compounded with the economic realities of the early 2000s when many news operations shuttered their own libraries and laid off news librarians. The chapter addresses other challenges including the many different versions of web content and the sometimes deliberate attempts to alter or erase content. Although new tools exist to help capture web content, it is clear there are no easy solutions.
In the final two chapters, the authors delve deeper into the challenges facing news preservationists. They look ahead, noting technological advances will continue. The authors plead for preservation and want to avoid the mistakes of the past. They conclude,
If we have learned anything from three hundred years of news work in the United States, it is that archival storage function must be considered upfront, during the development of any new format, not after years or decades of content has been lost.
The book will certainly interest journalists, historians and librarians. It is filled with interesting historical anecdotes about various media forms—making the book a win for general readers, too. The haphazard way that news has been preserved is, frankly, shocking. Whether the authors’ pleas for more attention to preservation now while news operations continue to face draconian budget cuts and economic challenges remains to be seen.