NewsMuseum

NewsMuseum

Established	2016; 9 years ago (2016)
Location	Sintra, Portugal
Type	News and Media Museum
Visitors	80.000 (expected)
President	Luís Paixão Martins
Owner	Acta Diurna

The NewsMuseum^[1] is a museum dedicated to news, media and communication located in Sintra, Portugal.^[1][2][3] Inspired by the Washington’s Newseum (USA),^[4] it was inaugurated in the first minutes of 25 April 2016, in an event attended by the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.^[5]  

It occupies the former facilities of the Museu do Brinquedo (Toy Museum)^[6] and presents a history of the media and journalism evolution.^[2]

The Acta Diurna association, which promotes the project and is presided by Luís Paixão Martins, has invested approximately 1.8 million euros in the museum. The project also has the support of Sintra’s city council, which lent the property in the center to the association, for 20 years.^[7]

Features

NewsMuseum

360º vision at the Lounge

The "Pyramid of Babel" tv screens

The experience begins outside, where visitors can find a statue of the journalist and writer Eça de Queiroz, staring at his smartphone.^[8][9]

In more than 25 thematic areas, spread across the building´s three floors, episodes of the history of Portugal and the World are remembered through their media coverage.^[10][8][9]

There are more than 300 consultation articles and a total of 16 hours of information/entertainment and multimedia, always in an interactive approach that allows the visitor not only to see, but also to take part in the stories.^[10][8][9]

NewsMuseum aims to be a Media Age Experience, an open window into the world of media and communication, and their impact on society, using a strong digital and technological component.^[11]

All of the content is available in Portuguese and English, making the project truly bilingual.^[8]

Thematic areas

The Lounge, one of NewsMuseum's most iconic rooms, tells stories through a touch screen of 67m², one of the largest in the world, and features a 360 ° view for an innovative experience while watching vídeos.^[10][8][9]

The War Journalism's area, curated by the journalist José Rodrigues dos Santos, recreates the balcony where reporters covered the first night of the Gulf War, and reviews the close connection of different media with the most significant conflicts in contemporary world history.^[8][9]

In the room dedicated to Duels, visitors can remember great media duels, in an area about the rivalries that the media portrayed, such as the famous debate between Mário Soares and Álvaro Cunhal after the Hot Summer of 1975.^[8][9]

In the thematic area regarding Propaganda, it is possible to remember the most emblematic propagandists, including António Ferro, and the critics of this communication tool. Visitors can also see iconic political posters and even post some of them on the NewsMuseum wall.^[8][9]

In the Sports room, the highlight goes to the media careers of Eusébio and Cristiano Ronaldo,^[8][9] as well as for the exhibition "8 Best of: Best Sports Moments", dedicated to great Portuguese sports moments, like Eder's goal at Euro 2016, Rosa Mota and Carlos Lopes's victories at the 1988 and 1984 Olympic Games or Rui Costa's 2013 World Cycling Champion title.^[12] The choice resulted from an online vote conducted by the Portuguese newspaper Record, partner in the project, and the opening of the exhibition on 19 November 2019, was attended by Portugal’s Minister of Education, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues.^[13]

The thematic area dedicated to the Radio allows visitors to enter a radio booth and read a MFA [military movement] statement on the microphone, reproducing the atmosphere lived in the early hours of April 25, 1974.^[8][9]

Through the "Pyramid of Babel", a metallic tower with 69 television screens, one can watch the main news channels from around the globe.^[8][9] News from national and international media are projected in real time on one of the walls.^[8][9]

An interactive globe allows NewsMuseum visitors to discover the press freedom index throughout the world.^[8][9]

Some of the most notable personalities of the Portuguese journalism are remembered through multimedia content, in a thematic area that includes testimonials from various professionals in the field.^[8][9]

There are also areas dedicated to photojournalism, "bad news", marketing and public relations. As well as an "objects from the past" exhibit: 1950s camcorders, professional record players, telexes, and replicas of clothes worn by newscasters, provided by RTP, LUSA, and EFE.^[14]

Along the three floors there are several Fun Zones, including a Rubik's cube where visitors can make the front page of a newspaper, according to their answers on questions about journalistic ethics.^[8][9] Manuela Moura Guedes tests the visitors’ media culture, in a contest about the world of communication.^[8][9] NewsMuseum also proposes a journey to the future through virtual reality glasses, an 8-minute experience that transports the visitor through current and future journalism.^[8][9]

The media experience extends to all NewsMuseum spaces, including the elevator,^[8][9] where visitors can hear, among others, the speech of Robot Sofia, in which she communicates the attribution of her nationality to Saudi Arabia. Also the "most famous journalists on the planet" - Tintin and Clark Kent (Superman) - compose a panel with illustrations and vídeos.^[14]

Temporary exhibitions

On 25 April 2017, NewsMuseum inaugurated the exhibition "Macho Media", an interactive multimedia show around the main milestones and media episodes of the fight against machismo and female emancipation.^[15]

Education services

The museum also has a small auditorium and a space for "live" television broadcasts, areas dedicated to schools, with the aim of making media literacy among the younger ones.^[16] The visit also includes a short "class" with one of the curators, such as Manuel Falcão, José Rodrigues dos Santos and Paula Cordeiro,^[4] on a previously selected theme, such as War Journalism, Social Networks, The Radio, The Future of the Media, Towards Danger (September 11 Documentary), The Digital World: Wikileaks, The Berlin Wall and the Press.^[17]

NewsMuseum Library

NewsMuseum also promotes the NewsMuseum Library, an initiative with the support of Chiado Editora, that gathers books related to journalism, media and communication.^[18]

On 15 October 2015, the first two books of the NewsMuseum Library were presented at Escola Superior de Comunicação Social, in Lisbon: Novo Dicionário da Comunicação, an encyclopaedia of several generations of journalism and media terms, as well as Tinha tudo para correr mal, Luís Paixão Martins professional memoirs.^[19][20]

References

1. "About NewsMuseum". Official NewsMuseum website.
2. Lusa (27 April 2015). "Sintra's city council wants NewsMuseum in the former home of toys". Público (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 November 2015.
3. "The news is the news". TSF (in Portuguese). 29 February 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
4. Lusa. "NewsMuseum inaugurado no 25 de Abril por um dos seus protagonistas - Marcelo". PÚBLICO (in Portuguese). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
5. "Presidente da República é o primeiro visitante do NewsMuseum - DN". www.dn.pt (in Portuguese). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
6. "Sintra: Toy Museum can by replaced by NewsMuseum". Diário Digital (in Portuguese). 27 April 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
7. "NewsMuseum should open in Sintra in March 2016". Público (in Portuguese). 4 June 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
8. Bruno Horta (22 March 2016). "The old Toy Museum will be the new NewsMuseum". Observador (in Portuguese). Retrieved 1 April 2016.
9. Marta Gonçalves Miranda (17 March 2016). "We have already visited NewsMuseum". New in Town (in Portuguese). Retrieved 1 April 2016.
10. Lusa (16 March 2016). "The news are also already entitled to a museum". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Retrieved 1 April 2016.
11. "NewsMuseum in Sintra. Opening in March 2016". Revista de Turismo de Lisboa, page 13. June 2015. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
12. Europa, T. V. (18 November 2019). "NewsMuseum exibe os melhores momentos do Desporto". TV Europa (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2 January 2020.
13. Sousa, Fátima. "Briefing - O Best Of do desporto está no NewsMuseum". www.briefing.pt (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2 January 2020.
14. Por ©VIAGENS; MIÚDOS (3 January 2018). "News Museum: o museu das notícias". Viagens & Miúdos (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2 January 2020.
15. ""Macho Media": when women change the rules and make news".
16. "As notícias também já têm direito a um museu - DN". www.dn.pt (in Portuguese). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
17. "Experiência com valor educativo". NewsMuseum (in European Portuguese). 7 April 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
18. Morais, Carolina (16 October 2015). "Hashtag, googling, instagraming. The new media slang". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 November 2015.
19. "Why NewsMuseum? Luís Paixão Martins explains a "consistent" and "opportune" project". Briefing (in Portuguese). 16 October 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
20. Margarida Bon de Sousa (14 October 2015). "Novo Dicionário da Comunicação integrates words unknown for several generations". i newspaper (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 November 2015.