Imperialism Newspaper Assignment:
Objective:
- Students will analyze the role of the media in US history and the influence it has on government.
- Students will create their own historical newspapers describing the events associated with American Imperialism
Background: Over the course of this unit we will be learning about many controversial decisions that the United States government made between 1890-1930 including the annexation of Hawaii, influencing Japan and China, entering the Spanish-American War, creating the Panama Canal, and supporting the Mexican Revolution. These decisions are controversial among historians today, but they were also controversial among the American public at the time that they were made. The decision to become an imperialistic nation or to play a more passive role weighed heavily on the mind of the public.
Today the public analyzes and measures many of the decisions that the government makes and has the opportunity to voice their opinions through many different forms of media. Around the turn of the 20th century, this process was beginning to take shape; at this time people were able to write editorials about their opinions that a vast audience would be able to read. Also, the newspaper editors wielded [held] a large amount of power by deciding which stories to publish. For the first time in American history, the articles published in newspapers had a very significant effect on the public opinion about these decisions. In this assignment students will be able to play the role of a Newspaper editor and create their own historic newspapers.
Instructions: For this assignment you will choose an issue from the Imperialism chapter in the book and create the front page of a newspaper that describes the events associated with the issue. These newspaper pages should mimic the “yellow journalism”that was popular at the time period. On the front page of the article you will need:
1)A hypothetical title and historically appropriate date for your newspaper. You also need proper formatting of the articles to make your project look like a newspaper (____/ 3 points)
2)One article supporting the actions that America made and has at least ____ facts supporting it. Must use at least ___ primary resources (______/ 8 points)
3)One article protesting the actions that America madeand has at least ____ facts supporting it. Must use at least ___ primary resources (______/ 8 points)
4)The facts need to be from historic, primary resources.
5)At least one picture or drawing that depicts the issue that you are writing about. The picture needs to have a caption. (____ / 3 points)
6)A Works Cited (bibliography) that includes the sources of your facts and picture. The Works Cited (not the newspaper article) needs to be in proper MLA format ( ___ / 3 point)
List of Possible Resources: