Lost media

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Theatrical release poster for the lost film London after Midnight, the last known copy of which was destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire.[1]

Lost media is an umbrella term describing examples of media that are nonexistent, missing, or unavailable to the general public. The term primarily encompasses visual, audio, or audiovisual media such as films, television and radio broadcasts, music,[2] and video games.[3][4] Lost artworks and lost literary works may also fit into the term, although lost works is more common in these cases.[5]

Since the advent of streaming media on the Internet, use of the term lost media has concentrated on media that is not available on digital distribution or streaming platforms.[6] Such media—primarily recorded onto magnetic tape in the case of television and radio broadcast masters—may be entirely lost due to the industry practice of wiping (broadcast media was often considered ephemeral and of little historical worth before the rise of home media in the late 1970s). Others are known to exist but are hard to access outside of archives such as the Library of Congress of the United States and private collections.[7] The Lost Media Wiki, a wiki site founded by Daniel "Dycaite" Wilson in 2012, has spearheaded the search for numerous pieces of lost media, primarily obscure or unaired television programs, but also commercials, music, books and video games.[2][8][9]

Preservation efforts attempt to avoid the complete loss of works; this is usually done by storing them in archives, one example being the Arctic World Archive, which has been the chosen location for the preservation of the code on public repositories on GitHub[10] along with a wide range of data of interest to multiple companies, institutions and governments; including the Constitutions of Brazil and Norway.[11]

Lost film

Main article: Lost film
Further information: List of lost films

Lost works seem to encompass a large portion of silent films made in the United States. A 2013 report made by the United States Library of Congress estimates that 70 percent of silent films made in the United States have been completely lost.[12]

Lost television broadcast

Main article: Lost television broadcast

Lost video games

Video games, including digital downloads, are often known to have faded from existence due to the digital game store’s closure, such as Wii Shop Channel and V Cast Network. The infamous P.T., a teaser to the unreleased Silent Hills game, became un-reloadable after its removal from the PlayStation Network in about a year.[13] There were fan attempts, but were blocked from doing so due to legal issues with Konami, receiving controversy ever since. The Nintendo 3DS digital download game Dodge Club Pocket was removed from Nintendo eShop in 2022 and became publicly unavailable due to controlling issues.[14] Mighty Milky Way, the second installment to the Mighty game series, had rare availability on the Nintendo DS and 3DS. Due to no availability with the DSiWare games on other systems after the closure of the eShop in 2023,[15] Mighty Milky Way became publicly unavailable as Mighty has lost a chapter. The App Store is known to have gained infamy with the removal of the apps and games. When a publisher closes the page, the previous purchased apps are permanently lost.

Lost electronic data

Further information: Digital dark age

Data stored in electronic computers risks being lost if it is not frequently migrated into more recent file formats. This happens because as new computer systems are developed and new technologies are built, now obsolete systems may break down over time, leaving the data inside inaccesible.[16] Electronic data preservation is further complicated by the fact that unless an emulator for a given computer system which can decode the data is present at the time of the preservation, the original data may become inaccessible as the original hardware breaks down, as it may depend on the original hardware to be decoded,[17] although in some cases the original data may be recoverable through lengthy reverse engineering work with the objective of understanding the original computer system enough to decode the most original electronic data possible.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Soister, John; Nicolella, Henry; Joyce, Steve; Long, Harry (2012). American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913–1929. McFarland. p. 333. ISBN 978-0786435814.
  2. ^ a b Blanchet, Brenton (April 21, 2020). "The internet community unearthing lost episodes from your childhood faves". i-D. Vice Media. Archived from the original on July 11, 2021.
  3. ^ Forrest, Eleanor (March 8, 2022). "Meet Raven Simone, the YouTuber who discovered the lost Mean Girls video game". NME. NME Networks. Archived from the original on March 8, 2022.
  4. ^ Bell, Brendan (September 16, 2021). "Meet the YouTubers determined to find lost media". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on September 16, 2021.
  5. ^ Bruncevic, Merima (2017). Law, Art and the Commons. Taylor & Francis. p. 322. ISBN 9781315521398 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Leighton, Mara (August 23, 2022). "A YouTuber and Sailor Moon fanatic used the Library of Congress to uncover the never-aired pilot episode of an American version of the '90s hit show". Insider – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ Hughes, William (June 18, 2022). "A 'lost,' 'too-scary' episode of Sesame Street has been uploaded to the internet". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022.
  8. ^ Kirsch, Melissa (March 17, 2021). "What We Miss". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 17, 2021.
  9. ^ Vanderbilt, Mike (July 21, 2016). "The mystery of the phantom Billboard hit, 'Ready 'N' Steady', is finally solved". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on September 17, 2021. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; September 17, 2017 suggested (help)
  10. ^ "GitHub will store all of its public open source code in an Arctic vault". Engadget. Archived from the original on 2019-11-15. Retrieved 2023-01-21.
  11. ^ "Look inside the doomsday vault that may hold the world's most important data". NBC News. Retrieved 2023-01-21.
  12. ^ "Library Reports on America's Endangered Silent-Film Heritage". News from the Library of Congress (Press release). Library of Congress. December 4, 2013. ISSN 0731-3527. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  13. ^ McWhertor, Michael; Sarkar, Samit (5 May 2015). "Konami pulls P.T. from PlayStation Store, no longer available for re-download (update)". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  14. ^ "Another Game Has Been Delisted from Nintendo eShop". January 25, 2022.
  15. ^ Faulkner, Cameron (July 19, 2022). "Nintendo will close the Wii U and 3DS eShops on March 27th, 2023". The Verge. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
  16. ^ Scott, Jessica (23 September 2013). "Long-term Digital Storage: Simple Steps to Get Started". History Associates. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  17. ^ "What is emulation?". Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Archived from the original on 24 October 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  18. ^ Blakeslee, Sandra (20 March 1990). "Lost on Earth: Wealth of Data Found in Space". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2023.

Further reading

  • Hansen, Kathleen A.; Paul, Nora (2017). Future-proofing the news : preserving the first draft of history. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-6712-1. OCLC 961007777.
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