Mr. Beckman
MUSH
Name _______________________________
Period_________
Imperialism Newspaper Assignment:
Objective:
1.
Students will analyze the role of the media in US history and the influence it has on
government.
2. 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 made and 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)
(NOTE: While many newspapers were meant to be persuasive in nature, and often only
displayed one viewpoint, I want you to want you to show your understanding of both sides of
the story by writing one article from each side of the story.)
List of Possible Resources: