“The Archivability of Television” critically evaluates archives and archival processes that collect, order and preserve elements of television as historically, culturally, socially, politically and economically significant material.
What do we know about how television moved from ephemeral broadcasts and mounds of paperwork to become historical material housed in archives? This collection’s guiding principles are to interrogate where television as historical material “lives” and to collect the stories of ways television preservation has been and continues to be circumstantial and distinctive.
Bringing together the work of academics, archivists and practitioners, these essays offer insights into the archival process that give television programs historical value. With a focus on television’s archival spaces, this book analyzes the relationships between technologies and culture, the political economy of the culture industries, and the details of television’s place in American society.
