Lost media refers to a piece of media that has become missing. These can derive from many forms of media: movies, tv shows, music, video games, etc. However, thanks to the efforts of many people, there have been many things found and archived. 

The Lost Media Wiki is a website that documents pieces of lost media and their statuses. Articles on The Lost Media Wiki are made by the users of the site. The statuses are: lost, partially found, partially lost, found, existence unconfirmed, and non-existant. 

Lost means the piece was confirmed to exist at one point, but went missing over the years. Partially found means that bits and pieces have been found. Partially lost means that most of a piece has been found. Found means that the whole piece has been tracked down and archived. Existence unconfirmed is for pieces of media that don’t have enough substantial evidence to prove their existence. Non-existent means that the piece is either gone forever or never existed. 

Over 75 percent of silent era films are lost according to Wikipedia including: London After Midnight (1927), a lost silent mystery horror film starring Lon Chaney; 4 Devils (1928), a lost drama film directed by F.W Mura; El Apostol (1917), a lost Argentinian animated feature film, which is considered to be the first ever feature animated film. 

However, there are plenty of lost media cases from recent times: Adventures in Wonder Park (2019), an unaired series based on the Wonder Park film (only a few episodes and scripts from the series have been found);  American Robot Wars Pilot (2000), is a lost pilot for the series Robot Wars meant for MTV; Banjo-Kazooie(2007), production materials for an unproduced animated series based on the game of the same name has also been lost. 

There are also plenty of lost video games: Galaxian Heroes (2015, existence unconfirmed), a game rumored to have been developed by an internal studio at Bandai Namco Entertainment; Guitar Hero 7 (2011), a canceled seventh entry in the Guitar Hero franchise; Mass Effect Andromeda “Quarian Ark''(2017) canceled downloadable content for the video game Mass Effect Andromeda. You can read more on these topics and many more at The Lost Media Wiki. (lostmediawiki.com)

Lost media can happen anywhere at any time. Even in a time where archival is commonplace, some media falls through the cracks. At the end of the day, it's inevitable. Lost media is bound to happen. However, this doesn’t stop people from searching for it. The time, effort, and dedication that people have put into archiving media is what is admirable about the community surrounding lost media. This is a great way for the history and culture surrounding creative mediums to be preserved.