The Newseum in Washington D.C states their purpose as “to increase public understanding of the importance of a free press and the First Amendment.” straight from their website, https://www.newseum.org/. Now, after 10 years, it’s closing its doors for good. Could this be representative for the future of media?
Over the 10 years that it’s been open to visitors, the Newseum has showed exhibits about dogs in The White House to the student leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. They all emphasize the importance of the media and journalism in these events and how the First Amendment has helped us catch the most iconic moments in history.
Over Thanksgiving break, I went to Washington D.C and got the chance to go to the Newseum, and it was one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been to. The exhibits were so different but all connected in the same way and there was so much to see; I could have spent a whole day there and still wouldn’t have seen everything.
When I walked into the museum, there was barely anyone there and I was extremely surprised. As I was looking at the different exhibits on each floor, I could hardly believe it was actually closing for good.
On one floor, there was an antenna from one of the World Trade Centers that was left behind from the 9/11 attacks, while as you went a floor up there was a whole section dedicated to Jon Stewart and other talk show hosts. And yet, while these exhibits were on completely different levels of grave-ness, I got the same message from both.
The First Amendment rings loud in that building, and after visiting the museum I was really bummed that after this year no one could experience it.
On their website, the Newseum say that it is closing because “it has struggled financially for a number of years and continuing to operate in our current location has proven unsustainable”, which means that it’s in an expensive location, but also has been struggling for other financial reasons.
If that could also mean that less and less people have been coming and buying tickets, what does that mean how people are perceiving the media and the First Amendment now?
With the “fake news” epidemic that has been plaguing the public, lots of people have been losing trust in the news and have decided to avoid it all together. This makes the Newseum a point of interest that people just aren’t interested in after they’ve decided to ignore the news.
As for the future of media, if people continue to avoid the news, it will have no use anymore since people won’t be tuning in to current events locally or globally.
I am extremely saddened that the Newseum is closing and what its closing could mean for the future of media, but I have hope that the First Amendment’s importance will prevail.
