This is a long overdue discussion. At the Radio Heritage Foundation, we grapple with these issues as part of the media landscape.
Some of the reasons [amongst many] we were established was because of our belief that our broadcasting heritage should be available to the community and should not locked away in vaults and curated by government officials.
We also believe that our broadcasting heritage exists within a global perspective, so we position our work within an Asia-Pacific paradigm, and draw on wider perspectives and alliances from anywhere relevant in the world.
We have never received 1c from NZOA, any radio network or any government agency in New Zealand. Not that we don't ask of course, but because there is either a view that RNZ Sound Archives represents 'radio' [because of historical accident of state radio control] or because the major commercial networks are Australian [and indirectly US] controlled and broadcasters are usually their own worst archivists in NZ, Australia, the US or Canada.
A Media Archives? A convenient cobbling together of different visions and pressures, and usually doomed to failure because it puts archiving, curating and resource control in the hands of a concentrated few state funded 'experts' who generally lack vision, passion and love of their subject..
We always struggle for resources and funds, but a few good global folks with collectors passion,contacts and trust can increasingly use new technology to compete with any state funded media archives. We're always a work-in-progress. We like the idea of private trusts and we must convince philanthropists, the business sector and others to support us on merit. Not through a taxpayer handout.