Reflection - Week Three

The Newseum lab, I think, was more important to our class than I had first thought.  As I had been there twice before, I stayed away from the 9/11 exhibit (I had been there two weeks ago so I was still fresh on it... and that's not an easy thing to look at and focus on!) and tried to get to everything that I hadn't seen!  I went to the ethics exhibit, the first amendment exhibit, and the "freedom" international exhibit.

The ethics exhibit I honestly think I remember because it had one of those really cool tables that's a touch screen (essentially).  It was interesting to see what they deemed ethical in the journalism world and what isn't.  I learned, among other things, that reporters shouldn't applaud when a speaker is finished speaking! 

The first amendment exhibit was cool because each right protected by the first amendment was set up as sort of a timeline of the struggle to keep that right.  But the exhibit that really struck me was the "freedom" international exhibit.  On the wall was a big world map with the countries in three colors.  Green represents free states - the U.S., Canada, and surprisingly less of Europe than I originally thought!  Yellow represents "partially free" states - Italy, few Asian countries, and some African countries.  Finally, Red represents not free states - more of the world than I had ever wanted to think.  The exhibit also showed a news truck shot up by militants in a less-than-free state.  I had been questioning recently why I am in international affairs, and this exhibit reminded me why.