With our history under attack, it's time to preserve R.I.'s local newscasting
Imagine an organization, with a robust online presence, that can fulfill any Rhode Islander's desire to access our recorded history —from students to documentary filmmakers, to scholars, to local residents seeking a family member's TV interview from the 1980s. Now imagine researchers from anywhere can learn about the history of Rhode Island using media created from our unique perspective.
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Newscasting is ephemeral by nature. The mission of news stations is to deliver information with immediacy and then move on to the next story. The byproduct of newscasting, however, has been the production of vast archives of history — history that is under great threat of being expunged and rewritten as the US federal government
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As an archivist, the great power of the audiovisual, coupled with the strong public trust in local television news, emphasizes the vital role broadcast media plays in documenting our local history.
Here in Rhode Island, our archival history was on display this past week when local Providence television station WPRI-TV (Channel 12)
But while the TV stations are the documenters of history, the responsibility of preserving that history lies with dedicated archivists. I believe the cultural heritage and funding communities of Rhode Island must band together with our local news creators to preserve our shared history by establishing the Rhode Island Audiovisual Local News Archive.
The opportunity for this work has perhaps never been greater. In early 2025, the Rhode Island Foundation and the van Beuren Charitable Foundation took the lead in
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The primary thrust behind
A statewide archive dedicated to collecting multiple forms of audiovisual news media would be the first of its kind in the United States.
The Rhode Island Audiovisual Local News Archive will necessarily need to work in close collaboration with news creators. The idea is not to ask those producers to give away the rights to their content, but rather to take the onus of preservation and public access off their plates. And maybe the next time one of our stations has an anniversary, they will find it a lot easier to access their material by coming to the Rhode Island Audiovisual Local News Archive.
Becca Bender is a moving image and audio archivist and curator based in Providence. She is a core member of the
, which advocates nationwide for local television news preservation and access.
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