• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Staff
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Multimedia
  • Sports

The Crimson

The only student-run newspaper at Florida Tech.

You are here: Home / Archives for exhibits

exhibits

The death of the Newseum in the era of fake news

November 18, 2019 by theCrimson Leave a Comment

The Newseum stands tall for the last months of the year as its closure looms Photo // Newseum

It’s been two weeks since our editorial staff attended a college media conference in Washington D.C.

We left the nation’s capital with an arsenal of tips for better reporting, but also deeply disappointed to see one of journalism’s biggest odes to the industry to be uprooted by the end of the year.

Since opening day in 2008, the Newseum has dedicated itself to increasing public understanding of the importance of a free press and the First Amendment.

“In all of the 30-plus years I spent in broadcast journalism, I would’ve never expected something like the Newseum to ever exist, anywhere,” said Paul Littman, a retired PBS broadcaster who has spent his early years of retirement volunteering at the engaging and interactive museum of news. “I was born and raised in D.C. and to see something as great as this close down will leave me heartbroken.”

As young and aspiring journalists, to walk through five floors of history and see how journalism captured every part of that left us awestruck.

One of the most visually impactful exhibits was the Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery.

To see a vulture preying on a starving child in Sudan is devastating.

But to then read that the photographer later took his own life because of the trauma and grief he felt for neglecting that child portrayed the harsh reality of reporting in third world countries.

  • A piece of the Berlin Wall showcases the contrast of freedom of speech between West Germany and East Germany. Crimson // Kevin Boodoosing
  • A piece of the Berlin Wall showcases the contrast of freedom of speech between West Germany and East Germany. Crimson // Kevin Boodoosing

Standing in front of chunks of the Berlin Wall that once separated communism from freedom was eye-opening to the freedom that we currently take for granted.

A glimpse at the civil rights movement exhibit showed that while many people turned a blind eye to the horrible things that were happening, journalists reported on the deaths of African American people, the brutal ways they were treated and the efforts they were making to gain more rights.

Walking one floor up, we entered the Stonewall exhibit, where the first Pride flag hung on the wall.

The Newseum illustrated how rights for LGBTQ people have changed and progressed throughout the years.

As in the civil rights exhibit, this was an area of history where many people were ignoring the mistreatment of the LGBTQ community or viewed them as bad people and deserving of punishment.

Meanwhile, journalists worked to uncover the truth and report it.

In another showcase—and perhaps the most emotional— newspapers from around the world covered a singular wall, each reporting on the events of 9/11.

A piece of the antenna from the North World Trade Tower stands in front of a wall of newspapers from around the world that covered 9/11.
Crimson // Jesse Villaverde

This exhibit highlighted Bill Biggart, a photographer and the only journalist to lose his life covering 9/11.

His gear was preserved in the Newseum, his photos having been recovered after the events of 9/11.

While we were in awe of the archives and galleries around us, other museum-goers were also drawn in by the history of news and value of free speech.

“This museum shows how the First Amendment is a gift to the world,” said Tim Neary, a professor from Worcester University in Massachusetts who was in town for a Georgetown Alumni celebration.“It’s a damn shame this place is closing. It seems like there has to be a solution.”

In a time when the Trump Administration has launched an attack on news media and criticized journalists for reporting “fake news,” the Newseum tells an important story.

It shows the way reporters have given their lives in pursuit of their craft.

It shows how history has been influenced by the news: When reporters do their jobs and report the truth, people take action and promote change.

In a survey of the Florida Tech community, we asked how reliable people believe the news is.

The survey is not reflective of the entirety of students, staff, faculty and alumni; rather a small portion—55 respondents—helps illustrate trends within a small section of our community.

The biggest takeaway from the survey is that 40 percent of respondents believe that the news is somewhat reliable and a little more than 38 percent believe it is mostly reliable, but we live in a time when the idea of fake news is broadcast and spread on social media constantly.

A display at the museum describes the significance of the First Amendment in a school setting. Crimson // Jesse Villaverde

Pew Research Center released a report this past June in which 68 percent of Americans, which is nearly seven in 10, said that the creation and spread of fake news is causing significant harm to the nation and needs to be stopped.

There are many people with their own agenda, but a good journalist reports facts in an unbiased way.

It is a hard job without stable hours. Many countries do not have the freedom of speech that we enjoy, and journalists risk their lives and are sometimes captured, tortured or killed as they pursue a story.

According to the journalist memorial at the Newseum, 2,344 reporters, editors, photographers and broadcasters have died doing what they loved.

These people dedicated their lives to giving marginalized groups a voice, even when others were not willing to listen.

What left us shocked in D.C. was to learn about the closing of this display of journalistic excellence.

This map compares the freedom of the press in various countries.
Crimson // Emily Walker

According to the Newseum’s website despite more than 11 years of service and nearly 10 million visitors, continued operations are no longer financially feasible.

It’s a shame as student reporters to have to wrap your mind around the fact that journalists are being torn down by the current administration in office with their jobs and the entire industry on the line.

More worrisome is the fact that no benefactor has stepped in to save this museum.

What will happen to those pieces of the Berlin Wall?

The preserved Articles of Confederation on display?

The piece of the antenna that remained from the top of the North World Trade Tower?

These are the questions reporters of our generation have now.

Filed Under: All-Stories, Arts, News, Politics, Technology, World Tagged With: 9/11, DC, death, dying news, exhibits, fake news, first ammendment, freedom of speech, news, newseum, photographs, photos, pulitzer, real news, speech, washington

Ruth Funk Center’s foray into American History

August 28, 2019 by Christian Martinez Leave a Comment

With the upcoming exhibit at Florida Tech’s textile museum, the Ruth Funk Center, anyone will be able to come in and learn about the history of the American art form of basketry.

The exhibit is titled “Rooted, Revived, Reinvented: Basketry in America.”

It will open to the public from Sept. 21-Dec. 14, as detailed from the museum’s website at www.textiles.fit. edu.

“[The exhibit] chronicles the history of American basketry from its origins in Native American, European and African traditions up to contemporary baskets,” said Donna Sewell, manager of visitor services at the Ruth Funk Center.

The exhibit will divide all basket-related items into four sections based on the themes of “cultural origins,” “living traditions,” “basket as vessels” and “beyond the basket.”

The museum’s goals for the exhibit are listed on their website as, “To model how to look at, talk about and analyze baskets aesthetically, critically and historically; and to contextualize American basketry within art and craft history specifically and American culture generally.”

Before the exhibit opens, the Ruth Funk Center will hold a Funky Fall Art Fest across from Evans Library from 3-7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 30.

The museum will be empty, as it’s in-between exhibits, so the event will be both indoors and outdoors.

Inside the museum for the event’s participants will be painting, pottery wheels, a game room, performances and more.

Outside activities include lawn games, chalk art and a live band with free food via food trucks.

The museum is hoping to make this an annual event going forward to celebrate the anniversary of the Ruth Funk Center opening up on campus.

“As a staff, we’ve been wanting to do a student-led event,” Sewell said. “So the idea developed through these collaborations with SMART and SGA.”

SMART is the museum’s student advisory committee that students can join to plan events with the museum, help the museum bring in new visitors and give insight into the planning of museum exhibits.

Sewell said that the first weekly meeting for the exhibit was held in May.

“As a staff, we’ve been planning this for a year,” Sewell said.

Other coming events will include a gallery tour by Exhibit Co-Curator Jo Stealey on Oct. 8 and basket weaving demos from Oct. 8-12 as part of the museum’s spinning and weaving week.

After this semester’s coming exhibit closes, the next exhibit titled “Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence” will run from Feb. 1-April 25.

“We want to let the students know that we are the center of creativity, fun and art,” Seawell said. “We want the students to have fun and relax.”

Filed Under: Arts, News Tagged With: art museum, arts, events, exhibits, history, museum, ruth funk

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Florida Tech confirms seven student cases of COVID-19, recommends students get vaccinated
  • Mindfulness Mondays in March
  • Conversations with a Holocaust survivor
  • Florida Tech introduces new esports director
  • Remembering Alan Rosiene

Categories

  • All-Stories
  • Arts
  • Business
  • Clubs
  • Colleges
    • College of Aeronautics
    • College of Business
    • College of Engineering and Science
  • Crime
  • Entertainment
  • Food
  • Funny
  • Health
  • Local
  • Music
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • World

Copyright © 2021 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in