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The twentieth century generated tens of thousands of hours of American newsfilm but not the scholarly apparatus necessary to analyze and contextualize them. Assembling new approaches to the study of U.S. newsfilm in cinema and television, this book makes a long overdue critical intervention in the field of film and media studies by addressing the format's inherent intermediality; its mediation of "events" for local, national, and transnational communities; its distinctive archival legacies; and, consequently, its integral place in film and television studies more broadly. This collection brings fresh, contemporary methodologies and analysis to bear on a vast amount of material that has languished in relative obscurity for far too long.
List of contents
Introduction (Mark Garrett Cooper, Sara Beth Levavy, Ross Melnick, and Mark Williams)
Part 1: Newsfilm and "the News"
1. The Great War and the Birth of American Moving Image Journalism (Greg Wilsbacher)
2. Government, Industry, and the World War II Newsreel (Mary Samuelson)
3. ‘The Visual News of All the World’: Kinograms, WJAZ, and How Newsreels Projected Radio" (Sara Beth Levavy)
4. Telenews (Michael Aronson)
5. Television News and Newsfilm in the 1960s: From the Kennedy Assassination to Selma (Aniko Bodroghkozy)
6. Women’s Experiences with Documentary Newsfilm at NBC News (Thomas A. Mascaro)
7. Performance Bias: The Selling of the Pentagon (CBS Reports, 1971) (Jennifer Horne)
Part 2: Newsfilm Geographies
8. Detroit Free Press Film Edition (1918-1923) and Detroit News Pictorial (1923-1929) (Richard Abel)
9. From Canada and Back Again: Montreal’s Associated Screen News and the Transnational Flow of Non-Fiction Film before WWII (Joseph Clark)
10. Technologies of Place in the Early Sound Newsreel (Jennifer Peterson)
11. Pressed Into Service: Hollywood and the Global Expansion of U.S.-Produced Newsreels (Ross Melnick)
12. Seldom Used and of Doubtful Value": Complicating "Local" Television with Lyndon B. Johnson’s KTBC (Caroline Frick)
Part 3: Into the Archives
13. Newsfilm Typology (Dan Streible)
14. Outtakes: A Definition and a Prompt (Mark Cooper et al.)
15. Now! (Alverez, 1965) (Michael Renov and Josh Kun)
16. Archives of Liveness (Mark Williams)
17. Preservation and Restoration of the Hearst Metrotone News Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive (Blaine Bartell)
18. Challenges in Providing Access to the KTLA Newsfilm Collection at UCLA (Mark Quigley)
19. Newsfilm in the 21st Century: Past, Present, and Future of the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s Newsfilm Collection (Jan-Christopher Horak)
About the author
Mark Garrett Cooper is a Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of South Carolina, USA.
Sara Beth Levavy is a scholar of Film, Media, and Art History.
Ross Melnick is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.
Mark Williams is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Dartmouth College, USA.
Summary
Assembling new approaches to the study of U.S. newsfilm in cinema and television, this book makes a critical intervention in the field of film and media studies by addressing the format’s inherent intermediality; its mediation of "events" for communities; its distinctive archival legacies; and its integral place in film and television studies.
