By Alvaro Flores-Villegas,

The Journalists Memorial remembers reporters who died in the line of duty (Photos: Amadou Bah, Patterson Press)

Students from Mr. Pesa’s journalism class along with students from several other classes participated in a field trip to the Newseum in Washington D.C. on March 24, 2017. The purpose of the trip was for the students to learn more about how the news is made, explore issues surrounding first Amendment freedoms and see the history of news back in the day through rare artifacts, hands-on exhibits and multi-media displays.

It took students and teachers several hours to explore the massive 7-story building, where they saw all kinds of news articles and other exhibits. One of the other things that students saw include a piece of the World Trade Center that was destroyed on 9/11, surrounded by news headlines and video footage captured by journalists during that tragic event. Another interesting thing students checked out was the virtual reality (VR) room where we could interact with the screens and see how virtual reality brings media to a whole new level. “It made it seem like I was in a video game. It was a wonderful experience”, said Amadou Bah, a student who tried out the VR goggles. Another room that really got a lot of students’ attention was a memorial for all the journalists that died doing their jobs.

Because there was so much to see, some students went off on their own to visit parts of the museum that others skipped over. A student named Faran Nadeem went into a 4-dimensional movie and shared his experience. “That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! I didn’t know technology can go so far.”,  Nadeem exclaimed. The movie contained the first woman journalist ever and a radio reporter who was outside when German planes were bombing London at night during World War 2.  Other students recorded themselves reading the news using a teleprompter and a green screen to make it appear like they were reporting live on the scene.

The field trip to the Newseum was such an amazing experience, not only for the journalism class but for all the other students who were not part of the class but will hopefully be in it next year.