Media Memories: The Newseum Story of News

This document explains the origins and work of the Newseum, with an appeal to the idea that the mythology of the civic compact that undergirds press power and privilege requires ongoing maintenance. Through an analysis of the Newseum's origins, aspirations, methods, and location within a broader discourse of journalism, this narrative explores the memory work of the media, the dynamics of modern and late modern journalistic identity, the media work of the museum, and the news media's ongoing work of re-legitimating the cultural authority of journalism. I argue that the imagined reality and material reality of the news media are increasingly at odds, and that the traditional means for representing the civic compact (most importantly, the forms of news themselves, which increasingly hail segmented consumers) are increasingly incapable of convincingly representing the press's idealized role of civic stewardship; thus, the necessity and advent of the Newseum.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communications

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2008

Author dc:creator

• Nimkoff, Mark Francis

Contributors dc:contributor

• Nerone, John C.

• Museology

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3314859

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/86592