I have always been a news junkie. And now I am also a citizen journalist. Imagine my curiosity when I learned (from a newspaper article) that there was a new museum in Washington D.C. devoted to those two passions appropriately called the Newseum.

I travel to our capital several times a year and each time I try to focus on one museum or historical site. Most of the museums in D.C. are under the Smithsonian umbrella and admission is free. They range from the arts and history, to junk and technology. Many of the government departments have their own museums. History buffs would probably find the National Archives the most relevant of these museums.

I generally enter a museum with no preconceptions and let the curator’s intentions and plan chart the path for my visit. I do enter a museum, however, with one expectation of my visit in mind: to have a better understanding of my world and my place in it.

Such was my mindset when I visited the Newseum a few weeks ago. I was slightly concerned from having read a few critical reviews after its opening. And the $20 admission charge sent off some alarms. This wasn’t some crass commercial thing like the Spy Museum, was it?

The building is located at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue midway between the U.S. Capital and the White House. Many museums have a unique symbol, such as an XR 71 airplane for the Space and Aeronautics Museum. The Newseum has taken the words of the First Amendment to the Constitution as its raison d’être. An entire half of a five story wall is devoted to those words. It is that amendment which in fact sets the ground rules for journalism and to a larger extent our role as citizens.

The sidewalk along Pennsylvania Avenue is lined with displays of front pages of major daily papers from the U.S. and abroad. Upon entering, visitors are directed to a short 3D film which highlights the role of journalism in the history of our country and gives a basic outline of the museum. From there you head to the sixth floor on a very high tech elevator. An outside terrace affords a dramatic view of the Capital and America’s Main Street.

The other five levels display many of the components that are part of today’s electronic and print journalism including original front page editions of newspapers. In predicting future trends in journalism, a modest nod is given to citizen journalists.

On a more local note, when the museum was collecting materials from media across the country, Lakewood Observer publisher Jim O’Bryan offered to send in a copy of our paper. The offer was declined. According to O’Bryan they were “not at this point prepared to take citizen newspapers on.”

Many of the exhibits bring up instant memories of events in the recent past with a heavy emphasis on television news. For those in the National Public Radio community (local station WCPN 90.3) the weekly broadcast of Face the Nation takes place in the Knight Studio on Wednesday afternoons. A live T.V. broadcast auditorium is used for demonstrations during the day.

At the end of my visit I had a very mixed feeling about the Newseum. I felt that in essence it was a self congratulatory exercise on the part of the large media giants who financed its construction. Although the press has been part of our country since its founding this seems to be an attempt to literally cement the place of the Fourth Estate into the nation’s capital. And I felt that throughout the Newseum the media sponsors were not too subtly reminding our lawmakers of the place of journalism in the nation’s affairs.

Where does that leave Observer readers and contributors here in Lakewood? My visit left me without an answer. We do help residents “learn about our city” (the Observer Mission Statement). I am reminded about that by readers on a daily basis. As far as your next visit to Washington D.C.? I think that there are many other museums that you can avail yourself of before visiting this one.