A vanishing cultural heritage…
Local TV News is disappearing on multiple fronts:
- On the ground: Analog and digital media are regularly discarded; equipment is increasingly obsolete; original formats are deteriorating; and both stations and archival repositories often lack knowledge as to
their holdings.
- Systemically: Corporate consolidation, shrinking preservation budgets, and high licensing costs have combined to create “history deserts” — communities devoid of access to their own past.
News organizations exist to report, not to preserve.
Yet, what stations produce is too valuable to be discarded or languish in unmarked boxes. A fundamental tension persists between the cultural and monetary values of these materials.
Until now, no group has systematically stepped up to mediate this challenge. This is why LTLI was created.