Internet Archive to Host Conference for Saving Online News

 The  Internet Archive will host the “Dodging the Memory Hole” (DTMH) forum  Nov 15 and 16th.  This will be the fifth in the series of outreach  efforts over the past four years. Presented by the Donald W. Reynolds  Journalism Institute, with support from the Institute of Museum and  Library Services, the conference will address issues related to  archiving and access to online news. We are happy to be able to present a  range of people, and projects, involved in a wide cross-section of  activities related to news archiving, representing local, national and  world-wide efforts.  As a bonus, our special guest speaker, Daniel  Ellsberg, will highlight the value of the First Amendment and the need  to make sure the public has free access to accurate information in the  digital age. News has been called the “first rough  draft of history.”  Some think the risk to this history is at an all  time high.  The possibility exists that large portions of our cultural  record, as captured by journalists and others, will be lost forever if  no action is taken to provide long-term solutions for access.  The loss  of digital records is happening at an unprecedented pace – faster than  the loss of comparable print and analog resources.  Access and  preservation are two sides of the same coin in this regard.  The Internet Archive has become  increasingly important as a means of collecting and preserving online  news content.  As if the challenges of capturing more traditional news  sources such as newspapers and television stations aren’t enough, the  rise of social media as major distribution channels has made it even  more difficult to address the complex set of issues involved.  Since  many of the challenges end up being technical in nature, bringing  Internet Archive staff together with the DTMH community offers the  chance to identify problems and approach solutions to some of the  stumbling blocks we’ve encountered at this point in the journey. Journalists, memory institutions,  technologists, historians, political scientists and anyone with an  interest in having long-term access to a trustworthy and accurate record  of life in the digital age will find this gathering of interest.  I  urge anyone interested in this urgent and important issue to come join  us at the Internet Archive on Nov. 15-16.  We have a limited number of  seats available.  Registration is required, but it is free. If you want  register in time to allow us to order food for you, please register by  Monday, Oct. 30.  Final cutoff for registrations is Nov. 5.  I hope to see you there! To learn more about the conference click here. To register for the conference click here.    Posted in News  | Leave a comment    

TV News Record: Third Eye goes to Trump press conference

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Nancy Watzman   A weekly round up on what’s happening and what we’re seeing at the TV News Archive by Katie Dahl and Nancy Watzman. Additional research by Robin Chin. All three major U.S. cable news networks covered President Donald  Trump’s impromptu press conference with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R., Ky.,  on Monday, October 16, but there were notable differences in their  editorial choices for chyrons – the captions that appear in real-time on  the bottom third of the screen – throughout the broadcast. We used the  TV News Archive’s new Third Eye chryon extraction data tool to  demonstrate these differences, similar to how The Washington Post examined FBI director James B. Comey’s hearing in June 2017. The beauty of the Third Eye tool is you can do this too, any time  there is breaking news or a widely covered live event, like yesterday’s  Senate judiciary committee hearing where AG Jeff Sessions testified  (7:31am-9:46am PT) or the October 5 White House briefing about Puerto  Rico (11:20am-11:48am PT). Third Eye data – which includes chyrons from  BBC News, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC – is available for data download, via  API, in both raw and filtered formats. (Get into the weeds over on the Third Eye collection page.) Please take Third Eye for a spin, and let us know if you have questions: tvnews@archive.org or @tvnewsarchive. For example, at 11:03 PT, Trump began answering a question about  pharmaceutical companies “making money.” MSNBC chooses a chyron that  characterizes Trump’s statements as a claim, whereas Fox News displays  Trump’s assertion that Obamacare is a disaster. CNN goes with a chyron  saying that Trump is “very happy” to end Obamacare subsidies.  In the  following minute, 11:04, Fox News chooses other bold statements from  Trump: “I do not need pharma money” and “I want tax reform this year.”  CNN’s chyron instead says Trump “would like to see” tax reform, a less  bold statement.