The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) has launched a new digital exhibit about newsmagazines, a popular form of news presentation spanning five decades of radio and television broadcasting. Departing from mainstream examples such as 60 Minutes and All Things Considered, the exhibit brings together unique programs produced by independent stations from across the country for the first time as a unified collection. The newsmagazines showcased in “Structuring the News” cover topics from labor strikes to a day in the life of an air traffic controller, and emphasize conversations and voices often overlooked by network news shows.
“Structuring the News” is curated by Digital Exhibits Intern Alejandra Dean, and highlights 42 definitive examples representing both metropolitan producers and smaller, regional studios. Many of the shows in the exhibit prioritize local issues and communities, providing a window into American daily life from 1976-2016. In addition to defining the format, the exhibit looks at important precursors during the 1960s that experimented with news reporting.
“Structuring the News” can be accessed online at http://americanarchive.org/exhibits/newsmagazines.
To celebrate the launch of “Structuring the News: The Magazine Format in Public Media”, the exhibit’s curator, Alejandra Dean, AAPB Project Manager Casey Davis Kaufman, and Mark Williams, Professor of Film and Media Studies at Dartmouth College, will be discussing newsmagazines in a Facebook Live event at 12pm EDT on Thursday, July 6th. Don’t miss this inside look at over fifty years of broadcast newsmagazines, and the chance to ask questions about the exhibit! To watch, head to WGBH’s Facebook page at 12pm EDT on July 6th.
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