This site really ought to come with a health warning, as it’s seriously addictive. There is something deeply fascinating, to say nothing of instantly gratifying, about being able to click on a button to watch footage of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896. My experience of video archives is of arcanely catalogued clips which have to be ordered and waited for. Newsplayer offers 10,000 clips with helpful titles that can be played immediately.

There are lots of good technical things to say about the site. It uses Windows Media player, so it’s pretty hard to have a problem playing the clips. It runs them from its own server, so in theory you could have a lab full of machines running the same clip at the same time (the people at the site claim to have done this without a hitch). It runs the clips at sizes (28k t 512k) to suit your equipment.

But the technical side is far less interesting than the ability simply to choose a clip and play it. History students can watch and listen to John F Kennedy indicating his disgust at the building of the Berlin Wall (and thousands of other historic moments being brought to life). Media studies students could have hours of fun assessing the development of styles of news reporting through the years.

There are some helpful features such as the collected archives for particular years. It is a bit expensive for classroom use (the commercial subscription is pound;25 per year), but the company is working on an educational package (pound;10 per terminal, with a minimum of five terminals) and is looking at ways to develop its educational potential to a fuller extent. Do visit the preview section of the site - it’s well worth it.