[ti:Getting News From Around the World With Today¡¯s Front Pages]
[ar:Christopher Cruise]
[al:Technology Report]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
[00:04.51]We recently told you about a website
[00:07.40]called PastPages.org.
[00:09.96]It saves the homepages of seventy news websites
[00:14.24]from around the world every hour.
[00:16.63]That report led us to look for a website
[00:20.46]that saves images of newspapers from around the world.
[00:25.19]We found Todays' Front Pages, a site operated
[00:30.36]by The Newseum in Washington, DC.
[00:33.55]The Newseum is a museum
[00:36.84]that explores news reporting and the media.
[00:40.53]We visited The Newseum and spoke
[00:43.96]with its Senior Vice President, Paul Sparrow.
[00:48.52]PAUL SPARROW: "I think one of the most interesting things
[00:50.61]about newspapers is that they are a snapshot in time.
[00:52.99]They capture a moment when the people in that organization,
[00:57.62]in that newspaper, say ¡®these are the most important stories
[01:00.26]that are affecting our community.'
[01:01.91]And what that does is that it gives you a lens
[01:04.98]in which you can look at history
[01:06.63]from a very specific point of view."
[01:08.82]Paul Sparrow says visitors to the website
[01:12.05]can choose to see all of its newspapers.
[01:14.94]Or they can look only at newspapers
[01:18.27]from one area of the world,
[01:20.76]such as Asia, Africa or South America.
[01:24.51]PAUL SPARROW: "One of the things that we do
[01:26.01]is we allow for people to search by region,
[01:29.49]so we have a map interface so you can,
[01:31.58]you know, roll over different areas of the map
[01:33.52]and you'll see the newspapers from that area.
[01:35.12]People are very interested in that.
[01:36.62]We get comments all the time, that ¡®Oh its great
[01:39.06]¨C put your cursor over anyplace in the world
[01:40.70]and see the papers from that area.'
[01:41.95]You can also, we also list them sort of alphabetically
[01:45.83]by state and then by country.
[01:47.58]And then we have a gallery layout
[01:49.81]where you can just look at all the thumbnails
[01:51.31]and pick the ones that you like
[01:52.90]based on their visual presentation."
[01:54.64]Todays' Front Pages does not archive,
[01:57.99]or save, front page images.
[02:00.82]But it does archive newspapers from historically-important dates
[02:06.10]such as November fifth, two thousand eight.
[02:09.53]That was one day after Barack Obama was elected president.
[02:14.82]Again, The Newseum's Paul Sparrow.
[02:17.70]PAUL SPARROW: "When you look back
[02:19.00]at the historical newspapers in our collection,
[02:20.89]you see these amazing moments where the culture is revealed.
[02:26.21]If you look at like, in World War Two,
[02:27.80]the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor,
[02:30.24]the headline is ¡®Japs Attack.'
[02:32.33]I mean, that's a headline you would just never see in a paper today.
[02:35.02]The website shows only the front pages
[02:38.40]of general-interest newspapers that publish daily.
[02:42.44]Student newspapers are not displayed.
[02:45.92]Some papers are not included
[02:48.81]because they do not have the technological ability
[02:52.49]to send their front pages electronically to the Newseum.
[02:57.26]And others simply choose not to do so.
[03:00.99]The site displays the front pages of eight hundred
[03:05.53]thirty-six newspapers from ninety-three countries.
[03:09.36]It warns that "the front pages are in their original,
[03:14.58]unedited form, and some may contain material
[03:19.16]that is deemed objectionable to some visitors."
[03:22.55]We have placed a link to Todays' Front Pages
[03:26.48]on our website, voa.com.
[03:30.71]If you are in Washington, you can see many front pages
[03:35.44]from around the world on display inside and just outside The Newseum.
[03:41.42]Only about ten percent of the front pages the Newseum
[03:45.75]receives every day are displayed,
[03:48.73]but all eight hundred thirty-six are available online.
[03:53.76]And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report.
[03:58.35]I'm Christopher Cruise.