Deadline approaching | 10 March 2020: help us create a publicly sourced archive of newspapers of a single day

Vaibhav Singh Announcement
Location
United Kingdom
Subject Fields
Anthropology, Business History / Studies, Contemporary History, Journalism and Media Studies, Local History

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CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

21 countries represented so far! Join us in creating a publicly sourced archive of a single day, articulated and comprehended through newspapers of the day across the world.  

Sign up to send us your local newspapers dated 10 March 2020, and receive our resulting exhibition catalogue(s) free of cost + be an acknowledged contributor to a major exhibition of newspapers from around the world that will be held in London in March 2021. 

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Calling all newspaper-lovers and print-aficionados to take part in our project ‘Drafts of history’: exploring the contested domains of news, ephemeral artefacts, circulation networks, publics, and archives.

This is a call for participation in our project to collect newspapers from around the world. We invite all interested individuals – wherever you happen to be on the globe – to send us a physical copy of your local newspapers dated 10 March 2020. The process of participation is relatively simple (see below), and there are also some material benefits of taking part. 

Why 10th March? Because it connects to the second part of our project: creating a historical, comparative snapshot of the world in newspapers on a single day. We are working to digitise a collection from 10 March 1881– a treasure trove of newspapers from across the world, which we will also be exhibiting in the coming year. We are looking to bring together March 1881 with a ‘first draft of history’ for 10 March 2020. And, of course, to lay the foundations for future drafts of history in 2031 and 2081 – if we still have printed newspapers then – marking 150- and 200-year retrospectives. 

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HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Sign up here (https://www.contextualternate.com/collection01) and tell us what you will send.

This is an occasion to celebrate your local newspaper scene, the diversity of voices, scales, and readership – you could choose your community paper, ones you encounter daily, or ones that you have never read, independent papers, the diaspora or foreign language press in your city, and so much else. Everything is welcome!

Please note: the newspapers will need to be sent by post to London (UK) at their own expense by those who are willing and able to participate and contribute to this project. Details of mailing and a PO Box address will be provided to participants who sign up on the project website.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

 

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If you know someone who may be willing and able to send us their local newspapers for 10 March 2020, please tell them about our project and help us include a wider representation of local newspapers from around the world.

We are particularly looking for volunteers from less well-represented parts of the world and can also offer help with the mailing costs if you are able to take on a more active role in collecting, so please get in touch (email contact below).

We only need a handful of people from any one city/country to be enthused and willing to commit to sending us newspapers by post – but we recognise that the task is nonetheless enormous, so any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.

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Here are the links to the project:
https://www.contextualternate.com/collection01
https://twitter.com/contextualalt

 

Contact Email
editor@contextual-alternate.com