Preserving Media Preserves Culture

TV shows, movies, and video games have become a crucial part of pop culture. Future generations will look back on the media of today to study the culture of our time. Or they would, if there were a guarantee that the media would still be there.

With shows and movies being released, then suddenly being cancelled and removed from the site, preserving these important pieces of culture becomes difficult.

Games purchased through Steam aren’t actually owned, you’re buying a license to the game. You have to run it online, and if it ever gets removed from Steam, well, tough luck. Sometimes, that means you’re out $70.

And sure, not everything that gets cancelled or removed is groundbreaking or incredibly well done, but one could argue that there’s a lot of “bad media” that becomes historically important. For example, there’s plenty of propaganda, such as “Birth of a Nation”, that are important to study. Media is incredibly influential, and it can tell us a lot about society from the time it was made.

Preserving media is a critical part of preserving culture. Streaming services and game developers are all too comfortable with removing these works to cut costs.

Last month, there was a scare where people thought that “Over the Garden Wall”, a single season fall show from 2014, was being removed from Hulu. As it was one of two places to watch it, people were concerned about losing access to a beloved show. It thankfully wasn’t being removed, and before the argument about getting the other service: not everyone can afford that.

For a lot of people, “Over the Garden Wall” is a quintessential part of starting the fall season. It’s an impactful piece of art. Physical media is an important part of preserving our art.

But this is a digital age, which can make preserving art legally difficult. Sites full of out of print books and removed media get taken down for questionable legality, and then that media runs the risk of becoming lost.

Studying the art of a society tells us a lot about them. What will ours say?

Kai Spahr is a Buhler sophomore studying journalism and the Opinion Page Editor. You can contact them on X: @KaiSpahr.

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