Newseum Opening Day

Justin and I attended the opening of the newest museum in DC, the Newseum. The Newseum is dedicated to the history of news reporting and journalism, and is the world’s most interactive museum. The huge headlines 'Newseum Opens' cover the building front.

Justin at the entrance of the Newseum At the front of the building is a 74-foot high marble tablet with the words of the First Amendment engraved on it. More than 450 daily newspaper front pages from all around the world are displayed in glass cases.











After waiting in line for an hour and a half (the line was over three blocks long), we finally were able to enter the building. Once inside, we walked into the huge 90-foot tall atrium, called the Great Hall of News, where there is a 40’x22’ foot high-definition screen, a satellite replica and a helicopter - icons of modern news gathering and transmission. At the exhibit, ‘Be A TV Reporter,’ Justin and I stand in one of eight booths with a large blank screen behind us. In front of us is a video camera with a teleprompter. We choose the breaking story that we want to cover - the opening of the Newseum - are given a practice run reading the fast-moving words from the teleprompter, and then videoed live. Afterwards, we were able to watch ourselves shown on one of many screens showing everyone’s recordings. (See our news clip in our next blog entry). It was a fun experience!

Justin enjoys the NBC News Interactive Newsroom, where 48 touch-screen stations allow you to play the role of a reporter, photojournalist, editor, or anchor. Here, Justin is interviewing people at a circus to try and figure out who released the circus animals.











At an interactive table, Justin grabs a digital reporter with his finger and is asked a question in regards to the best way of reporting a story. If he answers correctly, he gets a story published. People on one half of the table compete with people on the other half to complete a front page first. Then, Justin answers questions on an interactive news story.











In the Berlin Wall Gallery, Justin poses in front of sections of the original Berlin wall that stood outside of Germany. There are eight 12-foot-high concrete sections displayed. Near the Berlin Wall Gallery is an exhibit with a section of Stalin’s statue. Behind it is a picture taken while the statue was being taken down. The information section is titled, ‘Icons Fall.’











We waited in line for almost two hours to have a caricature artist draw Justin’s picture - part of the Newseum’s grand opening program events. There were kind people in line behind and in front of us that held our place while we went to eat lunch, use the bathroom, walk around, etc. It was a long day, but worth all the waiting in lines. We didn’t even cover half of the museum, so will have to come back in the future to see all the other exhibits and galleries. Definitely very interesting and educational! Turned out to be a great Justin and Mama day.