In a media landscape increasingly defined by impermanence, people should understand that physical and digital media preservation has become crucial.
The defining feature of the current media landscape is fairly unclear: some feel it is the dominance of superheroes in film and TV, and how that has made much of modern entertainment generic at best and bland products at worst. Others have noted how common remakes and reboots currently are, decrying them for killing the chance for original works to succeed.
One increasingly present contender has been the impermanence of media. The shock cancellation of Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Hauntwas a major wake-up call regarding this issue, as both films (which were nearing completion) were written off in parent company Warner Bros. Discovery’s taxes, making a release highly unlikely. The company also faced scrutiny for removing countless shows from HBO Max without warning, ranging from MAX Originals like Genera+ion or acclaimed HBO shows like Westworld. Animation in particular has suffered, with an entire completed season of Little Ellen having been canceled or shows like Infinity Train getting scrubbed from social media.
This issue extends beyond film and TV, however: October 2021 saw several games in the Grand Theft Auto series delisted from digital storefronts, so as to promote the then-upcoming Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. The same was done in April of 2022 with the Sonic the Hedgehog series, with games pulled from Steam, PS Now and Xbox Live in order to push the Sonic Origins compilation game.
The removal of these pieces of media should concern people, not least of all because several of these decisions are motivated by financial gain for massive corporations. Hollywood Reporter said canceling Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt was part of an effort for Warner to “find $3 billion in cost savings“, a minuscule amount considering the company’s $48 billion in debt. There is also no benefit for consumers: the four Sonic games removed from Steam cost$4.99eachbefore delisting, with their total price of $19.96 (not accounting for bundles, deals or price cuts) costing just over $20 less than Sonic Origins’ launch price.
More importantly, the preservation of this media has tangible benefits for the people who worked so hard to create it and the people who gain so much joy from consuming it. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter from July 2022, actress Syndey Sweeney noted how actors today make less in terms of residuals, which is money a production’s cast and crew makes from their work after the initial release. The main cast of Friends made $20 million each from residuals in 2015. Besides the financial benefits, people create strong attachments to the media they own, whether it is CDs that came in cereal boxes or collectible trading cards.
Much of the blame for modern media impermanence has fallen on streaming services and other digital media: it was services like HBO Max that removed their shows, digital storefronts that the Sonic the Hedgehog games were removed from and streaming services were mentioned by Sweeney. Indeed, many have called for a return to physical media and deemed it a better alternative to streaming. There is some merit to these arguments; physical media is a major source of actors’ residuals and immune to the licensing issues that plague streaming.
However, many overlook the limitations of physical media: besides the space they take up and their inevitable degradation (called disc rot), there is far less price consistency with physical media. Collectors have noted an increase in physical media prices at retailers like Best Buy, while the retro gaming market is notorious for price-gouging buyers and comically unjustified prices. There is also no small amount of benefits to digital media, like their convenience and how services like Steam let gamers customize games to their liking with their Workshop program.
The arguably best media preservation today can be found via the Internet Archive, a nonprofit online library with countless films, programs, books and more available for anyone with an Internet connection. The site has recently been embroiled in legal troubles related to copyright issues with major book publishers: the Archive (particularly its Wayback Machine function) is a major tool not just in preserving media but also in aiding journalists in their work, with many likening its potential loss to a modern Library of Alexandria.
With the media of today becoming increasingly fleeting, it is critically important that as much of it as possible should be preserved for future generations: whether on a disc or as data programs, media preservation allows past, present and future generations to appreciate the art we make as a society.
