The woman who recorded 30 years of news because she didn’t trust the future
Before the term “fake news” entered popular vocabulary and became a regular feature in headlines, one woman had long been preparing herself for a reality where the very concept of truth could become negotiable. She did not author books, give interviews, or attempt to start a public revolution. All she did was press record, capturing the world as it was happening.
Her name was Marion Stokes. In a world that had become fast-paced and oversaturated with information, she deliberately chose to document everything possible, with immense self-discipline. News channels, political debates, important news events, global emergencies, and even mundane daily updates were all part of her collection. Her seemingly odd, even obsessive behavior would soon be hailed as sheer brilliance.
Stokes’ practice of taping the television news without interruption for over 30 years, as stated in The Guardian, was motivated by her belief that sooner or later, truth would be twisted, changed, or wiped out completely. Her approach to fighting against the corruption of information did not involve protesting but, rather, preserving the original records without fail.
Today, no one considers what she did as a strange passion but, rather, a warning delivered way ahead of time. In an age when thenarrative changes overnight and truth is doubted at every turn, her collection serves as a vivid reminder of how important it is to preserve original records.TV & Video
The Marion Stokes Project
Marion Stokes was not only an archivist throughout her life. As a young woman, she was engaged in civil rights activism and social justice. Her experience allowed her to develop a keen insight into the game between power, media, and public opinion. On one hand, she understood that information had the ability to shape society, yet on the other hand, she knew that the process could be selective and fast-paced.
With the development of television as the primary tool for shaping public opinion, Stokes began paying closer attention to the news. She noticed certain trends, like the tone of presentation, the way the news was repeated, and the way particular stories managed to capture public attention, while others vanished from sight without any explanation.
Rather than merely criticizing the media, Stokes decided to act upon her thoughts. She opted for documenting the process. Gradually, she created a recording studio within the walls of her own house that contained multiple TVs, VHS machines, and tons of tapes. She recorded from multiple stations simultaneously and kept her equipment in top condition in order not to miss a minute of her recordings.
Her relatives claim that she was an extremely disciplined person who did not give up on her idea. Recording was no mere pastime; it controlled her entire day-to-day schedule. She truly believed that future generations would need unedited, raw footage to see exactly how events were pitched to the public the moment they happened.
Over the period of three decades, Stokes amassed an archive that is simply mind-blowing. Countless VHS tapes filled her living quarters and were arranged in a way that showed continuous TV history through the years. All tapes recorded exact slices of time as they happened on TV screens.
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As reported by KPBS, she made sure to upgrade her equipment to always stay ahead of the curve. As soon as some device became obsolete, she would replace it with a better one. Her goal was quite straightforward: keep the tapes rolling, no matter how media technology changed.
Her collection was immense in scope. Estimates suggest that she recorded more than 71,000 tapes containing all kinds of broadcasts, ranging from major global events to local weather reports. Unlike curated archives that focus only on historically significant moments, her collection was comprehensive, as she made no distinction between major and minor pieces of information.
It is this completeness that has made her archive especially valuable to researchers and historians today. The archive doesn’t just preserve the events themselves; it preserves the way those events were fed to the public.
Marion Stokes was deeply anxious about the long-term survival of accurate information.
She felt that the media, whether intentionally or not, would slowly reshape public memory through sneaky edits, new interpretations, and shifting narratives.
Of course, at the time, her worries seemed rather paranoid. People had not yet grasped the idea of the doubt that would come to characterize the mainstream media. Even so, she saw the early warning signs of a fragmented media landscape.
Recorder Film
For Stokes, her tapes served as the best protection against this uncertainty. By preserving broadcasts in their original form, she created a permanent reference point. People would always have a way to look back and verify what had actually been said and shown, rather than relying entirely on later interpretations or rewritten narratives.
To a large extent, she anticipated the confusion that defines today’s media landscape. Her archive was not only meant to preserve history, but also to protect its integrity. She understood that truth is shaped not only by events themselves, but also by the way those events are presented to the public.
With Marion Stokes’ passing in 2012, that gigantic mountain of tapes could very well have ended up buried in a landfill somewhere, or been left totally forgotten. The scale of the collection made its preservation an enormous logistical nightmare, and it would take an almost unbelievable amount of effort to save it from oblivion.
Fortunately, all of her years of hard work did not go down with her into the grave. The Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library dedicated to the preservation of human knowledge, understood exactly what they were getting themselves into when they began their monumental undertaking.
It was extremely tough and challenging work. Each and every VHS video had to be digitized, logged, and entered into a searchable digital database. Digitizing decades of non-stop TV required massive expertise and a serious long-term commitment. The result is a truly remarkable and unique source of information. What began as the passionate hobby of a single woman has become a valuable resource for journalists, scholars, historians, and all people interested in how media spin develops through time. This project proves that one person really can make a dent in this world.TV & Video
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The concept of “fake news” seems to be everywhere in today’s media environment, mostly as a tool of aggression. News spreads very fast nowadays, particularly via social media, which makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between fact and misinformation, bias, or outright manipulation.
The Stokes archive provides something unique in the contemporary world – receipts. By accessing original broadcasts, individuals can skip any modern interpretation and look at things precisely the way they were portrayed at that particular time.
The Stokes archive provides something unique in the contemporary world – receipts. By accessing original broadcasts, individuals can skip any modern interpretation and look at things precisely the way they were portrayed at that particular time.
Moreover, the example set by Stokes makes us reconsider how we consume media ourselves in the modern age. We have become accustomed to consuming media in small doses, through the means of short videos or click-bait headlines. These forms may make consumption easier, but they lack critical context. The ability to see the complete and unfiltered picture is what enables us to create a comprehensive worldview.
With a world full of digital information that can be edited or removed in mere seconds, the use of analog tapes provides Stokes’ work with a sense of longevity. It serves as a reminder that information cannot simply be preserved; it must also be safeguarded.
The life of Marion Stokes was mainly spent out of the spotlight. For anyone looking from outside, her constant and round-the-clock recording could easily be considered strange and hard to explain. However, in retrospect, the genius of her efforts is now quite obvious.
What she created has proven to be a valuable instrument for self-reflection and research. Through the help of her archive, we can view our past in great detail and learn about the process of narrative construction. Thus, we can gain insight into the complex relationship between media, memory, and public belief.