Dodging the Memory Hole: Collaborations to save the news

The news is often called the “first draft of history” and preserved newspapers are some of the most used collections in libraries. The Internet and other digital technologies have altered the news landscape. There have been numerous stories about the demise of the newspaper and disruption at traditional media outlets. We’ve seen more than a few newspapers shutter their operations or move to strictly digital publishing. At the same time, niche news blogs, citizen-captured video, hyper-local new sites, news aggregators and social media have all emerged to provide a dynamic and constantly changing news environment that is sometimes confusing to consume and definitely complex to encapsulate.

With these issues in mind and with the goal to create a network to preserve born-digital journalism, the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri sponsored part one of the meeting Dodging the Memory Hole as part of the Journalism Digital New Archive 2014 forum, an initiative at the Reynolds Institute.