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.
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.
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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.
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.
