This week, I wanted to focus on historical and political aspects of my topic. Lost media is not just about deleted files and error pages, but rather a lens to what is valued in society. I found a few amazing sources about intentional lost media and I feel very good about how they connect to my project.
Rakesh Sengupta’s “Towards a Decolonial Media Archeology: The Absent Archive of Screenwriting History and the Obsolete Munshi” explains that the archival absence of film is a colonial issue and the lack of proper documentation of non-western epistemologies exhibits that dominant industries decide what is worth preserving and what isn’t. Consequently, Western cinema is privileged and prioritized while South Asian film industries are marginalized. He uses the phrase “obsolete munshi” to describe the scriptwriters whose art was erased or blocked from history despite having important and valuable contributions to the film industry. He suggests that we combine decolonial thinking and media archeology to search for the gaps in history that got ignored and erased and understand why they aren’t preserved. His work shows that archival absence is not accidental and has strong ties to colonialism, capitalism, and structural erasure.
If I take this very theory heavy article and apply it to more current and digital examples of lost media, I can show that media loss has serious effects on justice and human rights. When I first started this project, I was mostly thinking about things my generation remembers from our childhood that got accidentally or intentionally deleted, but doing the historical research made me realize that this topic is so much deeper than that. It has serious implications about what we get to see and remember. If people in power have the right to delete and filter through information that comes from marginalized communities, how can we study complex subjects people have opposing views on? If all we have is what is preserved, aren’t we continuing to empower the same people who silenced others’ voices in the first place? How does this differ from censorship? Don’t we and future generations have the right to study all of our cultural heritage? How can digital media loss be prevented? Should my project have a call-to-action? I intend to think about these questions and more in the coming weeks. This week, I plan on reading some sources that parallel Sengupta’s work but are about digital media loss and online spaces. I believe this will help me take history and apply it to current issues. I have already started finding some sources that will help me do that, but I haven’t had time to read them yet.
I’m planning on looking at missing websites, deleted tweets and posts on various social media, and other user generated content that gets deleted, but I am concerned that my topic might get too broad if I start including so many specific types of content. I am also wondering if it would be a good idea to split my subject into two sections: accidental and intentional loss. This way, I can talk about the political implications while thinking about intentional loss (or deletion) and touch on more logistical issues such as neglect and clutter and discuss better ways to organize and archive digital media. I spent the week thinking about these and making my outline more specific and clear. This is actually coming along nicely and I am happy about where I am!
Sengupta, R. (2020). Towards a Decolonial Media Archaeology: The Absent Archive of Screenwriting History and the Obsolete Munshi. Theory, Culture & Society, 38(1), 3-26. https://doi-org.libproxy.temple.edu/10.1177/0263276420930276
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