By Monica Gurfinkel
Spring 2014
Looking forward to my mom’s visit and how we would spend the 36 hours we had together in DC, I knew for certain we would visit a museum—but with the number of museums in the city, I had to spend some time contemplating which one we’d visit. The Newseum popped into my head, after all my family still enjoys reading the Sunday edition of the New York Times together, sharing our thoughts on various news sources, and nothing says family bonding more than watching the Colbert Report or the Daily Show before dinner together. Warned by our programs’ faculty at the beginning of the semester that unlike the many museums DC has to offer, the Newseum was not free and we’d be going there later in the semester, I had stayed away, but with my mom’s upcoming visit I thought we would enjoy it.
My mom and I on the Newseum Balcony
The day’s front pages from papers printed across the country captured our attention as we walked toward the Newseum’s entrance. Being able to compare and contrast headlines about the same topic yet from various view points proved to be entertaining, and said a lot about how ones’ perception can be skewed depending on the source through which they obtain their news. After my mom paid the hefty ticket fee ($22.95+tax for adults), although college students do get a 10% discount and they tickets allow admission for two consecutive days, the cashier directed us to where a 4 minute Orientation Video would be playing—to which my mom asked if I brought her to Disney World rather than a museum.
A photo from within the Newseum
The video encouraged us to take the museum’s glass elevator to the top floor to the Greenspun Terrace. While I’m not sure where the name comes from (it didn’t look very green), the terrace did allow for some great photo ops. The terrace also had some history about events that occurred on Pennsylvania Avenue, but my mom commented that from a tourist’s perspective a small map pointing out what you were looking at would have been helpful. Inside was Today’s Front Pages, a display similar to the one at the museum’s entrance.
On the fifth floor there were three exhibits, though we mainly focused on the News Corp. News History Gallery. The gallery has over 300 historic front pages, reading the topics the papers covered were entertaining. One paper had a whole section on how to remove a ring stuck on a finger using a needle and handkerchief, a topic I particularly never expected to find on the front page of any paper. Unfortunately, the combination of the incredibly small font on some of the older papers and the poor lighting over the papers made them difficult to read. A small crowd gathered in front of a small TV playing a package with commentary about how the public expects facts from the news, but to be wary of the media’s opinion often dispersed among these facts, the clips definitely garnered laughs from the crowd.
Apparently the architect of the building didn’t put much thought into staircase placement, making it difficult to continue onto the next floor, and it wasn’t just us, a few other visitors seemed to be having the same problem. A prominent exhibit of the fourth floor is the 9/11 Gallery, featuring a salvaged part of a broadcast antenna from the World Trade Centers North Tower. Although it wasn’t displayed in a noticeable area, a small sign warned the “material may be too intense for children and some visitors.” At first my mom was wary of the exhibit, unsure if she wanted to recall memories from that day, but changed her mind as she saw me make way towards the antenna to read the description plaques. Hung on the walls were papers printed from the day or days following the attacks. I wanted to inspect them closer, and was frustrated that they were arranged in a decorative way rather than allowing for easy reading. I was pleased to find someone from the museum had the foresight to realize this issue, as I found binders filled with the same copies of papers hung from the walls were also available. Afterwards, we commented on how well we thought the exhibit was executed, in a way where you could really gather a sense of how media and broadcasting were impacted and reacted to the events of 9/11.
From here we explored the Cox First Amendment Gallery, and while taking it in an announcement came over the loud speaker warning us the museum would be closing in 30 minutes. My mom wanted to see the Time Warner World News Gallery, where the World Press Freedom Map displayed the ranging freedom press has around the world. As my mom and I explored an interactive screen about the media freedom in Belarus, we were once again warned that we had 15 minutes until the museum closed. We began feeling harried and rushed, unable to completely focus on another exhibit. After 2 and a half hours, we now understood why the admission tickets were good for two days, as you need to plan a lot of time to really take in all of the museum’s exhibits. As we were leaving, my mom thanked me for bringing her to the Newseum, saying at first she was a little apprehensive about it, but it was definitely way better than she expected, and we would without a doubt be coming back with my brother and dad, to which I agreed, on the condition we would plan for far more time to spend there.
Among the many things you can see at the Newseum is an entire exhibit dedicated to 9/11. Seen here is part of one of the towers that fell.
