THE MESSAGE OF THE NEWSEUM IN WASHINGTON DC IS THAT A FREE PRESS IS THE CORNERSTONE OF A HEALTHY DEMOCRACY, WRITES PETER RYAN

Summer in the United States, and for busloads of American vacationers and foreign tourists that means a pilgrimage to the steamy national capital of Washington DC.

In what’s often the global epicentre of politics and diplomacy, there’s a well worn path to and between Washington’s world-class museums, with a choice of 19 from the Smithsonian Institution alone.

But on the historic and picturesque Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and Capitol Hill, there’s a stunning new attraction that’s capturing the attention of tourists and news junkies.

The Newseum describes itself as the “world’s most interactive museum”, with seven levels of history, games, films, mastheads, front pages, big screens and interactive experiences. The entrance on the footpath is fast becoming an intriguing landmark for passers-by perhaps weary from the more staid museum fare at the nearby Museum of Art and National Archives.

But at the Newseum, many like me were revitalised by a vibrant mix of the past, present and, albeit uncertain, future. Up to 80 newspapers splashes from every American state line the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance and a news ticker from The Associated Press scrolls continuously in the atrium. And although Australia is just a speck on the journalistic landscape at the Newseum compared with the understandable American bias, it does get an honourable mention.

On the day I visited, front pages from The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age,The Courier-Mail, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review were on display along with other mastheads from around the world. The Journalists Memorial, which pays tribute to 1800 journalists who have died while reporting the news, also includes some prominent names from Australian journalism including Morgan Mellish (Australian Financial Review), Richard Carleton (Nine Network), Harry Burton (Reuters), Paul Moran (ABC) and Tony Joyce (ABC).

Although the list is not exhaustive, 14 Australian journalists are memorialised, going back as far as 1900 when W.J Lambie of The Age was killed in South Africa while covering the Boer War. There’s also an unmissable tribute to journalism’s best-known former Australian: Rupert Murdoch. In addition to a major financial contribution to the Newseum, the media magnate has donated the telephone he used to run News Corporation from 2002 to 2006 complete with management and editor’s speed-dials.

Alas, there are no recordings or transcripts of Murdoch’s deal-making conversations or regular chats with editors and executives around the News Corporation empire, but it’s enough to fire up the imagination. But the Murdoch hotline is just one famous attraction of the Newseum.

Visitors enticed by the Newseum’s 14 galleries, 4-D time travel experiences and the chance to do a television reporter’s “live shot” could be forgiven for rating it as a blend of Disneyworld and the Smithsonian given the normal staid historic path of most tourist itineraries. And the Disney element carries an admission fee of $US20 for adults, which is a jolt to Washington’s 20 million annual visitors who are accustomed to seeing the Smithsonian museums for free.

The ultra-modern glass building, largely funded by the nonpartisan Freedom Forum and corporate sponsors, was built at a cost of $US450 million ($462 million) on the last remaining property site between the White House and the Capitol. Despite the blaze of glitz, glamour and hype that came with its opening in April, the trumpeting of press freedom and democracy resounds in every corner of the Newseum. Even before walking through the front door, it’s impossible to miss a 20m marble engraving on the building’s façade featuring 45 words from the First Amendment of the US Constitution, symbolising the constitutional protection of a free press.

The Newseum’s executive director, former newspaper journalist Joe Urschel, says the bold headline approach in trumpeting press freedom is deliberate. “We’re not great fans of subtlety here, we wanted that message to go out loud and clear. You can read it from across the street and across the block,” Urschel said. “The message of the Newseum is that a free press is essential to a free society, that a free press is a cornerstone of a democracy.

That’s the main message that we try to convey with all of our exhibits, films and experiences. “There are some experiences and galleries that are more fun than others that are aimed at different audiences – younger audiences as well as older audiences. “People come and we want them to be emotionally moved and inspired and come away with a greater understanding of how a free press operates and maybe through that experience people will come to appreciate that freedom better.”

The messages about press freedom are hard to escape, with poignant and confronting reminders of America’s role as a global superpower, not just in the media but in the context of the Cold War and the War on Terror. In a section dedicated to media coverage of the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, there’s a mangled metal tower that once broadcast radio and television signals from the top of the World Trade Centre.

The tower was donated by the Port Authority of New Jersey, but only after it won a court case for its release amid concerns that it needed to be kept as evidence for possible legal action over the collapse of the World Trade Centre. “Of course, we had to get the tower down from New York and into the building and mounted. That was a strategic feat and an engineering feat,” Urschel said. It’s possible to step back in time to 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, which signalled the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Newseum managed to secure eight sections of the Berlin Wall, each weighing three tonnes. Further to the Cold War theme, tourists can view a three storey East German guard tower that once loomed near Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, which was donated by the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in East Berlin. Urschel said a Newseum staff member swooped on the opportunity after reading in The New York Times that there was no room for the tower in the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.

“We crated it up and shipped it over at around the same time that pieces of the Berlin Wall were being knocked down and ground up and being used for other materials,” Urschel said. Other features include newspapers dating back almost 5000 years, a news helicopter hanging from the atrium, satellite trucks and tributes to some of the heroes of American journalism. A 4-D film complete with air gusts and squirts of water tells the story of Edward R. Murrow’s reports from London during World War II, and the exploits of Nellie Bly who went undercover to expose the state of New York’s insane asylums in 1887.

Would-be journalists or news consumers can play ethical games based on real-life newsroom situations and record a television interview in front of a White House backdrop. But how long can journalism as we know it survive, and does the Newseum risk becoming a repository of a profession quickly becoming hostage to change, or at worst redundant?

That issue is canvassed in video replays of the television satirists Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart of The Daily Show who ask if the Newseum would be better described as a “Newsoleum”. Urschel sees the humour, but disagrees with the proposition that the news business is dead. “I think the Newseum will always be relevant because news is always relevant – the essential nature of news hasn’t changed all that much in 500 years,” Urschel said. “It’s still about the same things, it’s still about the importance of speedy delivery.

The technologies change all the time, but news really doesn’t. “There is nothing really wrong with news as such. It’s the business models that are changing – the traditional newspaper company, the traditional broadcaster and the traditional advertising sales that are hurting the business pretty thoroughly right now.”

Peter Ryan is the ABC’s business editor and was the ABC’s Washington bureau chief in the 1990s. He visited the Newseum during a trip to the United States in May.