Jim Regan - Site Reviews
Dateline Moon
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There is one site though, that actually looks at this familiar event from a new perspective -- Dateline Moon provides a brief, but intriguing examination of the space program's impact on the media -- and vice versa.
Created by the Newseum, (an online presence of the museum of news in Arlington, Va.) Dateline Moon divides this examination into two sections, with the first spotlighting the invention and legacy of the Lunar Camera. Huge by the standards of today's palm sized 'handy-cams', the Lunar Camera was a miracle of miniaturization at a time when Television cameras typically weighed 400 pounds. Add to that, the unit had to operate in temperatures from 300 to +250 degrees Fahrenheit, and it had to be operated by astronauts wearing bulky gloves. Also, there were no back-up units in case of failure (therefore demanding absolute reliability).
After this background and a Shockwave tour of the unit, Lunar Camera then looks at the -- not always beneficial -- effects that live, remote coverage to 500 million people had on news coverage -- including the present demand for 'Action News,' which frequently places live coverage of a local traffic accident before events of national and international importance.
The Media's Role turns things around and looks at how the space program was itself influenced by the media, from early science fiction magazines that first placed the possibility of space travel into the public imagination, to the public demand for mission photographs -- moving NASA from a 'cameras optional' attitude during Mercury, to having astronauts coached by photographers from Life and National Geographic magazines during Apollo.
Also included is look at the way the moon landing was reported in newspapers around the world. (Or not reported, as was the case in the papers of China, North Korea, North Vietnam ... and the Wall Street Journal. Pravda did report the event, but placed the story below the fold.)
Finally, From the Earth to the Moon provides an educational guide, encouraging research and discussion about subjects ranging from the first imaginings of extra-terrestrial flight to the future of space exploration. And let's hope that before classes resume in the fall, The Newseum will correct the guide's statements that, "U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins land on the moon." And that newspapers reported, "... three American astronauts -- Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins -- had landed on the moon." (All this would no doubt come as a surprise to Collins.)
Otherwise, the only complaint is that there isn't more -- both in terms of a longer look at an interesting topic, and in the number of images. (Pages about sci-fi magazines and world headlines particularly would have been improved by a more generous use of visual aids.) Still the site is well worth the visit, and gives visitors an opportunity to think about the moon landing's legacy to news coverage, even as the news is covering the anniversary of the moon landing.
Dateline Moon can be found at http://www.newseum.org/dateline_moon/.
Jim Regan provides 'Today's Links' to the e-Monitor. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.