JDNA
Videos from Dodging the Memory Hole: Saving Born-digital News Content
In today’s digital newsrooms, a software/hardware crash can wipe out decades of text, photos, videos and applications in a fraction of a second. Digital archives can easily become obsolete due to evolving formats and digital systems used by modern media, not to mention media failure, bit-rot and link-rot. One recent survey found that most American … Continued
‘Losing a piece of you’: The fragility of digital news archives
In 2002, The Columbia Missourian received a shock when it lost a significant portion of its digital archives. A server crash wiped out 15 years of precious and painstaking work of journalists, photographers and editors. The data loss also weakened the paper’s link to the who, how, what, when and why of changes in mid-Missouri … Continued
Digital archives not as complete or long-lasting as they should be — or could be
On a blustery February day in 1981, a two-sentence story moved on the Texas AP wire reporting the death of Bill Haley. It said something like: HARLINGEN, Tex. (AP) — Former Rock ‘n Roll star Bill Haley, 55, was found dead today. Police say they are investigating, but don’t suspect foul play. I was the … Continued
Saving the news: When your server crashes, you could lose decades of digital news content — forever
How would you bring your newest hires up to speed on a controversial mayoral candidate, on a years-long tension between the community and police department, or the highly charged history of local school taxation?
Content Matters: An Interview with Edward McCain of the Reynolds Journalism Institute
For this installment of the Content Matters interview series of the National Digital Stewardship Alliance Content Working Group I interviewed Edward McCain, digital curator of journalism at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and University of Missouri Libraries. Missouri University Libraries joined the NDSA this past summer. Ashenfelder: What is RJI’s relationship to the Missouri … Continued
RJI, University of Missouri Libraries team up to address digital archiving of news
Edward McCain was deeply concerned as he watched the Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen, a newspaper he had once worked for, close its doors without a good system in place to preserve and access its print or online archives. As he discussed the fate of the Citizen’s archive with editors, reporters, librarians and archivists, he realized that … Continued
Newspaper Archive Summit white paper suggests next steps for stakeholders
A mandate to preserve — a white paper (PDF) — was produced for the Newspaper Archive Summit Network by Victoria McCargar, veteran journalist, archivist and digital curation consultant. This white paper provides an assessment of the first Newspaper Archive Summit and offers suggestions for next steps. On April 10-12, 2011, the Reynolds Journalism Institute, MU … Continued
Newspaper Archive Summit recorded sessions
If a newspaper goes out of business, what happens to its archives? If a newspaper becomes available only online, what happens to yesterday’s (or last year’s) news? Why should we care? As the erosion of the traditional media economy and its concomitant decline in readership and revenues transforms one of the pillars of democratic life, … Continued