Visualizing Southern Television v 1.0 is almost ready for launch: the framework is stable, and I am in the process of uploading data.  I note its version number as I have recently begun work on version 2.0.  As it stands, v 1.0 documents the southern television landscape between 1942 and 1965, visually demonstrating the challenge southern television news represented for southern print and radio news during this period. Figure 1 shows the current version of the television news station splash map.

Figure 1: Current Splash Map

At this stage, I currently have three more states worth of stations to enter into the map: Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Clicking on each station brings up the database record for that station, as shown in Figure 2.  You can click on the station’s title which will bring you to a subsequent post page as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2: Info Window

Figure 3: Post Page

When the data upload is complete, each station record will show information on the TV station address, the archive at which film is housed, the URL if applicable, the station’s sign on and sign off date, and any additional notes regarding accessibility. Currently, a number of the records for these stations are incomplete, as I have spent the majority of my time thus far compiling data and testing various visualization methods. Also, I recently decided to extend the project’s timeline to 1965, as opposed to my original end date of 1960, because I believe a later end date is needed in order to accurately tell this story.  Given this extension of the timeline, the station record data will unfortunately remain incomplete upon the launch date, although the map itself will accurately display all southern television news stations.

Check back here on May 9th, 2014 to see the official launch of the project, and continue to watch this space for more data to be uploaded as time allows.