By CRISTINA FERNANDEZ-PEREDA
Observer staff
April 9, 2008

Photo by CRISTINA FERNANDEZ-PEREDA.
A portion of the Newseum is dedicated to Pulitzer Prize-winning photography.

The design of the new building for the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue inspires all kinds of interpretations, but these are not limited to the walls that surround this tribute to journalism and freedom of speech. The museum’s exhibits are also open to different reactions.

“Any reporter who comes in here with an open mind is going to see that this is a very exciting, entertaining and educational place,” said Peter Prichard, president of the Newseum.

The museum opened its doors yesterday to the news media. Reporters from different outlets and even different countries gathered under the big screen at the Newseum entrance and shared opinions on the exhibits as they discovered the Annenberg Theater, started the tour in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall or remembered the lives of reporters who lost their lives in conflicts around the world.

“It’s fantastic, even though I’ve been a correspondent for seven years, there are so many things that I hadn’t seen,” said Shelly Wang, Chinese correspondent for a Beijing-based news agency. “I think through this museum I can also take a general look, an overview of the history, the current state of things and also the future.”

Foreign correspondent Shelly Wang describes the similarities and differences of journalism in the United States and China.
Audio by CRISTINA FERNANDEZ-PEREDA.

Joe Urschel, Newseum’s executive director, described the World News section as the international emphasis the museum has had since the beginnings in Rosslyn, Va., where it was first located.

Photo by CRISTINA FERNANDEZ-PEREDA.
One of the Newseum’s walkways commemorates the nation’s “freedom of the press.”

“We talked about our international scope particularly because we are in an environment of national museums,” he said.

From the History of News section, which describes the evolution of journalism across the world, to the World News section, where visitors find a map of the world displayed on a wall – with different colors to classify countries that recognize freedom of speech – to a collection of newspapers from all over the world, international journalism has its tribute at the Newseum.

“My impression is that many people, also many Americans, are not really interested in what is going on abroad, perhaps this museum can reinforce that interest, but I’m not sure,” Ralph Sina, reporter for German broadcasting, said.

Ralph Sina shares his first impressions of the Newseum.Audio by CRISTINA FERNANDEZ-PEREDA.

“In America, the First Amendment is in fact the foundation of all freedoms, and nations around the world that don’t have a free press, usually don’t have most of the other freedoms,” Prichard said.

Reporters from other countries see the focus on the First Amendment and freedom of speech as an American perspective of the news and wonder where countries that don’t recognize these principles are in the Newseum.

“I don’t think it has a world perspective because that is very difficult in a country like this.,” Rita Neubaner, a German correspondent for Sttutgart Zeitung said. “The U.S. has their own view of things, I would say this is an approach that affects us in that press exists in other places, but I think it’s mainly from the perspective of the U.S.”

“I believe that, as a tool to teach what the First Amendment means, it’s a good thing,” Daniel Anyz, a foreign correspondent from the Czech Republic, said. “But it seems to me that it’s kind of U.S. oriented, there’s not much about what other media around the world are doing, but that’s the way it works here.”

International reporters have also reacted to the focus on the future of news media by the Newseum. Conscious of the changing media landscape and the consequences the Internet is having for traditional outlets, the creators of the museum have given online media their own section. As an example of what this part of the exhibit includes, visitors can find the cell phone a Virginia Tech student used to send videos of the massacre to CNN.

For foreign reporters, this is as an example of how far ahead the United States is from other countries in terms of news media technology. It is also seen as a way to represent what, while being the present of American journalism, is still the future for journalism in other countries.

“It’s an American approach, but America is at the forefront, is copied by all the other continents and nations,” Sina, of German broadcasting, said. “I’ve seen it in Germany: all the newspapers are on the Internet, all are uploading videos to the Web… they see what’s going on in America and then after six months or one year, they will copy it. So, if you have the American perspective, you’ll have the whole world’s perspective in some way.”