California Newsreel Printout |
THE BLACK PRESS
Study Guide
History of Print Media
UNIT: SOLDIERS WITHOUT SWORDS
Lesson 1 - Communication
Recommended age group - 3rd and 4th grade
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OBJECTIVE: The student will understand the effectiveness both positive and negative of print media.
SET: The definition of communication is a giving or exchanging of information.
Let's brainstorm tools that we use to communicate.
(Have the students generate a list of the ways people communicate, newspaper,
radio, tv, computers, letters, books, and magazines.)
What do you think is the affect of communicating or giving and exchanging information?
1. changes opinions
2. entertains
3. educates
Model: When commnication changes us in a positive way it is great but when it has a negative affect, then it can cause immeasurable harm. One of the most famous examples of negative results is the 50 year old 'War of the Worlds' broadcast by Orson Wells. People who turned their radios on late did not know it was fiction thought the world had come to an end. Many panicked. Some committed suicide. This is a very negative result. On the other hand, people who heard or read about the Pope coming to St. Louis, bought tickets, took off work and lived in a state of excitement until his arrival and subsequent departure. This had positive results.
Guided Practice: Fold your paper in-half. Label half, positive and the
other half, negative. List as many negative and positive results of communication
you can think of.
Instruction: In the history of America you will learn about how the print
media used by some Americans had a very negative affect on a group of people
and how using the very same media of print the people were able to fight back
and make it have a positive affect.
The story:
During the 1800s when newspapers were the most important way to inform citizens
about activities in America, the newspapers reporters made a silent agreement
not to write anything about black people. No one wrote about the babies who
were born or the people who got married or anyone who was a hero. No one told
about any black person that died. So most whites simply forgot blacks were there
except when there was a crime committed. Then the people were told it must have
been a black person. "Everyone knows those blacks are no good". Just
like the listeners of the War of the Worlds" , the listeners believed.
The punishment for serious crime was death by lynching. So many blacks were
lynched. Lynchings were not written about either so many blacks were lynched
just because they were black and the people thought they were no good. After
the Civil War, the blacks fought back.
Robert Abbott owned the Chicago Defender. He became a millionaire fighting back
with the same tool that was used to hurt black people like him. He wrote about
jobs and a better life in the North. Southern blacks had to sneak and get the
papers. When they read them they believed and hundreds of thousands left the
south and got jobs in the north.
Independent study:
Given a list of events the students will select one and write an article
to persuade listeners to support the event. Students will predict the outcome
of their reporting in the summary of their paper.