Research

The Moving Image Source Research Guide is a gateway to the best online resources related to film, television, and digital media.

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 Peer Reviewed

TV / Broadcast History

  • American Masters Database  
    Read well-researched biographies of important film and television personalities.
  • Archive Grid   Paid Subscription Required
    Search for primary sources in American archives. The site will tell you the title of a work or file and which archive it is in, but you will have to contact each specific archive to be able to access those works.
  • Archive of American Television  
    This website, created by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation's Archive of American Television, is home to more than 500 interviews with TV pioneers.
  • Archives USA   Paid Subscription Required
    Search for primary sources in more than 5,500 repositories and more than 161,000 collections across the United States.
  • Baird: The Birth of Television  
    This site, edited by Richard G. Elen (former editor of Broadcast Sound and a writer on broadcasting history), features articles about inventor John Logie Baird and the early days of television.
  • BFI Screenonline   Paid Subscription Required
    Screenonline, run by the British Film Institute, "is an online encyclopaedia of British film and television featuring hundreds of hours of film and television clips from the vast collections of the BFI National Archive, and several hours of recorded interviews with film and TV personalities". Although films may only be viewed by users at British universities, the rest of the website provides vast amounts of information pertaining to everything from comprehensive actors' filmographies to UK box-office statistics.
  • Big Dream, Small Screen   Paid Subscription Required
    The companion website to PBS's special on the history of television in America (part of their ongoing series The American Experience).
  • BIRTH TV archive   Paid Subscription Required
    A huge database featuring synopses and images of early television shows. Members can get film clips upon request.
  • Black Film Research Online  
    A database of online resources pertaining to the study of black cinema. Users can search for collections contained in archives, public libraries, and university libraries, as well as for more specific online content on black cinema festivals and retrospectives and online scholarly resources.
  • Classic TV History  
    This site features writing about the history of American television, with a focus on the period between 1948 through the early seventies. It includes an oral history project, behind-the-scenes articles, and a bibliography.
  • Continuum   Peer Reviewed
    This website makes available almost the entire first eight volumes of the Australian cinema and media journal Continuum. Each issue is organized around a common theme and each features a number of articles, reviews, and forums.
  • Critical Studies in Television   Peer Reviewed
    Published biannually, CST examines the production, reception, and aesthetics of television fiction, past and present. Abstracts are available for all articles from current and past issues, and the site has an excellent resources section linking to further reading on television studies.
  • Early Television Foundation  
    Online home of the Early Television Foundation and Museum, based in Hillard, Ohio.
  • Early Visual Media: A Pictorial Media Archeology  
    This excellent resource consists of many different online exhibitions concerned with all kinds of visual media, beginning with pre-cinematic visual technology and amusements, through early television. In addition to the text, each exhibit features many unique illustrations and photographs.
  • Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting  
    An online exhibit documenting the relationship of Jews to film and television, including information on Jewish actors, directors, writers, businessmen, studio tycoons, and more. The exhibit covers specific works (Seinfeld, Your Show of Shows) and events (McCarthyism, the Holocaust) spanning from the invention of cinema to today.
  • Eyes of a Generation  
    This "virtual museum" created by Bobby Ellerbee and J.R. Smith includes photographs of TV cameras and broadcast equipment from private collections, technical information, historical background, and discussion forums.
  • Fifty Years of Coca-Cola Television Advertisements  
    This online exhibit features a 50-year retrospective of Coca-Cola television advertising. Users can view the advertisements and read about the history of television advertising in general and the marketing of Coca-Cola in particular. The site also offers a bibliography and a guide to the collection at the Library of Congress.
  • FlowTV  
    The mission of this online journal of television and media studies is "to provide a space where researchers, teachers, students, and the public can read about and discuss the changing landscape of contemporary media at the speed that media moves." Past issues may be browsed on an issue-by-issue basis or by author.
  • Gallery of Graphic Design  
    An online archive of advertising in American periodicals from the early 1930s to the late 1960s. Users can search for advertisements by periodical, advertiser, product, keyword, or year. The gallery features many advertisements for television sets and other broadcast-related items.
  • Independent Television Programme Information   Paid Subscription Required
    Database of UK television listings from 1955 through 1985. Available only to British students.