National History Day, 1993 Theme Supplement Topics Related to

"Communication in History: The Key to Understanding"

The following is a list of approaches to the 1993 National History Day theme and possible topics for study. The list is not meant, of course, to be inclusive. It is merely a start to help students begin thinking about this year's theme. Whether students choose to write

a paper or create a performance, project or media presentation, they should be sure to place the chosen topic into historical perspective and focus on the topic's significance and impact in history. National History Day judges will examine not only the students' research skills and creative presentations, but their understanding of their topics' historical significance as well.

I. INFORMATIONAL MEDIA Information about events and ideas are important to all

societies. Informational media focuses on organizations, people and methods that transmit news and information to a mass audi

ence. This information may be transmitted by a town crier or a news anchor, but both have the goal of informing their communi ties about issues of the day. Topics include the growth of newspapers and magazines, electronic media such as radio and television, and ways of advertising and marketing products. This area of the theme encourages students to examine ways different types of media and media organizations have influenced history by disseminating news, ideas, and information to a popular audience.

The early development of newspaper and magazines: The invention and improvement of the printing press made it

possible for information to be collected, printed, and distributed on a regular basis.

The press and the shaping of revolutionary America: Papers, pamphlets, and broadsides were vehicles for commu

nicating ideas in the years immediately preceding the American Revolution. Students may analyze and discuss issues related to the writing, printing, and distribution of these publications, and the impact of the ideas that the authors sought to communicate.

Historical Roots of the Free Press in America: The English Influence

The Licensing Act (late 17th century) and the development of a free English press.

Key writers in the history of the English press: Joseph Addison Richard Steele Jonathan Swift Daniel DeFoe

English Common Law and seditious libel

Newspapers and colonial protest in America: Newspapers in colonial America helped create the protest over

taxation which led to the Revolutionary War. Discuss the role of the press in shaping public opinion surrounding the enactment of the following laws:

The Stamp Act (1765) The Townshend Acts (1767-68) The Intolerable Acts (1774)

Loyalist (Tory) Newspapers in pre-Revolutionary America

Key Writers in the Colonial American press: John Adams Samuel Adams John Gill

Benjamin Franklin Thomas Paine

The History of the Free Press in France The Literary Underground Before the French Revolution ?

students may want to examine the handwritten newsletter (nouvelles a la main) and their newsbooks (libelles)

The Free Press in France Following the Adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man (Article Eleven, 1789)

The American Free Press in Action Populism and Propaganda The Language of White Supremacy: The Rise of the KKK in the Post-Reconstruction South

The Abolitionist Press in Nineteenth Century America The Role of Foreign Language Newspapers in U.S. History The African-American Press in the Anti-Lynching Movement

76 OAH Magazine of History

This content downloaded from 72.253.70.31 on Wed, 06 May 2020 19:39:38 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Workers' Publications and the American Labor Movement

Feminist Writers and the Suffrage Movement Muckrakers in the Reform Era

Key Individuals in the History of American Journalism: Benjamin Franklin (mid 18th century) Benjamin Day Horace Greeley Joseph Pulitzer

William Randolph Hearst E. W. Scripps

Newspapers in Totalitarian States Students may investigate restrictions on the free flow of

information in nations such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Communist Rumania, etc.

Other areas for study and investigation related to informa tional media:

Radio Journalism Newsreels Advertising and Marketing Printed Ads and Billboards Broadcast Advertisements United States Postal Service

Pony Express Carrier Pigeon Service

II. RHETORIC AND THE POWER OF SOCIAL CHANGE

This area focuses on the oratory, and actions of groups communicating a need for societal, or global, change. It includes movements for civil rights, human rights, national independence, labor rights, and gender and racial equality. Students choosing such topics should emphasize how groups define their goals and tactics in order to communicate the message of their cause.

Students may want to analyze the historical significance and impact of speeches and written works by local and national figures, including:

Thomas Paine Patrick Henry Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson Abraham Lincoln Sojourner Truth Henry Ward Beecher Adolph Hitler Elizabeth Cady Stanton Ida B. Wells

Winston Churchill Booker T. Washington Jane Addams Max Eastman

"Big Bill" Haywood Martin Luther King, Jr. Mahatma Gandhi Betty Friedan Eugene V. Debs John F. Kennedy Malcolm X Fidel Castro Karl Marx Marcus Garvey Jerry Rubin Shirley Chisholm

William Jennings Bryan "The First Americans": Statements from the American Indian Task Force Russell Means

Students may wish to investigate the impact of social move ments and demonstrations as a means of communication:

Labor: Flint Sit-Down Strike, 1936-1937 Civil Rights: Lunch Counter Sit-In, Greensboro, North Caro

lina Vietnam War Protests, 1960s

III. TRANSMITTING CULTURAL VALUES Focuses on the wide ranging systems of beliefs, values,

structures, rituals, and artifacts that define a society. Includes national or tribal identity, religious traditions, education, family relationships, customs, economic activity, etc.

Propagating the Faith: Traditions of Oral and Written Com munication in the History of World Religion and Law

Historical Interpretations of Creation Myths The Great Awakening and Its Impact on American Social

Policy Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation

The Influence of Major Religious/Cultural Works in World History:

The Dead Sea Scrolls The Mishnah The Koran The Bible The Book of Morman

The Covenant Tradition of Protestant New England Message From the Vatican: Official Catholic Social Policy

and Its Impact on World History School Prayer and Individual Liberty The Scopes Trial and Its Impact on Education: Communicat

ing Evolutionary Ideas

Spring 1992 jj

This content downloaded from 72.253.70.31 on Wed, 06 May 2020 19:39:38 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

Communication Through the Arts The arts have served as expressions of political ideas, social

protest, and human emotions. Students my want to test the truth of this statement by examining the works of artists such as:

Carl Van Vechten Louise Bryant Upton Sinclair Theodore Dreiser James Baldwin Visual Artists in "The Ash Can School" including the realists

George Luks, Robert Henri, John Sloan, and William Glackens Literary and Visual Artists from the Harlem Renaissance, such

as Langston Hughes, Jessie Fauset, and Zora Neale Hurston, Richmond Barthe

Music and Counterculture in the 1960s

From Journalist to Author: The Life of Ernest Hemingway The Fine Art of Censorship: Banned Books in American

History Art or Obscenity: A History of Arts Endowment Policy on

Funding Controversial Works

Education How have societies used formal education to communicate

ideas and values such as nationalism, cultures, traditions, policies, laws?

IV. COMMUNICATION THROUGH SYMBOLS Focuses on graphic means of communication. Includes any

type of written language, sign language, hieroglyphics, codes, signs, or international symbols, etc.

Communication in the Ancient World

What Do the Hieroglyphs Tell Us About Life in Ancient Egypt? (invented approx. 3000 B.C.)

The Invention of Alphabetic Writing in Syria (1500 B.C.)

Communicating Through Symbols Sign Language Braille

V. ORAL AND FOLK TRADITIONS This area focuses on informal systems of communication and

the oral transmission of cultural skills and traditions. It includes

non-written languages, oral history, folk music, crafts, and stories.

How were/are ideas communicated in the absence of written

language? (town criers, messengers, drums, smoke signals, etc. Examples of oral and other non-literate news systems are evident in the histories of the following cultures:

Zulus of South Africa Bella Coola Indians of British Columbia

Hopi Indians of North America Ibo of Nigeria, West Africa The Griot Tradition of West Africa

How did slaves on southern plantations use field songs to communicate with one another?

VI. USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN COMMUNICATION Focuses on the development of means for improved commu

nication. Of primary importance here are advancements in telecommunication which include the telegraph, telephone, long distance cables, radio, television, and satellites. Communication systems employing technology may also be explored. These include postal systems, intelligence organizations, road building, or other networks designed to facilitate communication.

The history of science and technology includes the names of numerous inventors, inventions, and corporations which made lasting impressions in the field of mass communications. These include:

Radio 19th Century: Pioneering work with electromagnetic waves James Clerk Maxwell, Scotland Heinrich Hertz, Germany Guglielmo Marconi, Italy Thomas A. Edision, U.S. General Electric Company (1892) 20th Century: Lee DeForest, U.S. Reginald Fessenden, U.S. Radio Corporation of America (RCA, 1919) Westinghouse, role in early broadcasting (1920s) Telephone Alexander Graham Bell, U.S., 1876 The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (est. 1887) Telegraph (Samuel Morse, U.S. 1844) The History of Western Union in the Telegraph Field Discuss the Role of Cyrus W. Field and the Anglo-American

Telegraph Company in the history of trans-Atlantic Telecommu nications

Television Paul Nipkow, Germany, 1884 What role did radio networks, such as CBS and NBC, play in

the development of television technology? Video Technology Motion Pictures Industry (1890s) Movable type Printing Press Cameras and Photography Phonograph

7$ OAH Magazine of History

This content downloaded from 72.253.70.31 on Wed, 06 May 2020 19:39:38 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms

The development of optical fibers and the improvement of Telecommunications.

Identify and analyze examples of the impact of technology on political communication, such the televised Kennedy-Nixon de bates in 1960 or the significance of computerized public opinion polls.

Media Coverage of the Viet Nam War and the Shaping of Public Opinion

Media Coverage of and Government Reaction to Anti-War Protests During the Viet Nam Era

Satellite Communications

Military Communications and National Security

VII. CONTROL OF COMMUNICATION This field focuses on attempts by groups or governments to

control the content, form, and dissemination of communication in

social, political, and religious life. This could include government ownership of media, regulation of media, censorship, libel law, sedition, blasphemy or heresy, and propaganda.

Radio Act of 1927 Federal Radio Commission

Communications Act of 1934 Federal Communications Commission

National Telecommunications and Information Administra

tion (1978)

International Telecommunication Union

Spying, Privacy Rights, and Public Security

Students may want to examine publicity surrounding phone taps and surveillance of high profile individuals such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or cases of domestic spying such as the Watergate.

Censorship and National Security

The Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) The Espionage Act (1917) The Publication of the Pentagon Papers and the related case

New York Times v. United States (1971)

Freedom of Expression Under Siege: Historical Challenges

Schenck v. United States (1919) Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) The Scopes Trial (1925)

Near v. Minnesota (1931) New York Times, v. Sullivan (1964) National Symbols and the language of Patriotism. Cases

challenging laws on saluting the American Flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance include:

Minersville District v. Gobitis (1940) West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) Earth to Heaven: The Supreme Court and the Issue of School

Prayer (first case 1962) Book Burning - Community Control

VIII. POLITICS AND FOREIGN RELATIONS Focuses on the political culture (the relationship between

people and their government) within a society and the interrrelationships between nations. Politics could include politi cal parties, public oratory, political advertising, and propoaganda. Foreign relations defines the broad range of diplomatic, economic, and cultural exchanges between nations.

How did politicians communicate their ideas before the advent of mass communication techniques such as the television or radio?

What was the "Front Porch Campaign" and how was it used as a campaign strategy?

IX. MISCOMMUNICATION This area focuses on the consequences of failing to communi

cate effectively. This could include delays in communication, failure to understand language and culture.

The failure to communicate has affected individuals and

nationas and has had local and global consequences.

How did the Zimmerman Telegram impact on World War I?

X. COMMUNICATIONS ACROSS CULTURES AND TIME

This field focuses on the reciprocal relationships of cultural encounters. This may include the immigration, migration, assimi lation, or oppression of cultural groups. Topics may also explore

means of understanding cultures through archeology and anthro pology.

How has communication affected immigration? Example: The Irish The portrayal of the Irish community and Irish issues and

activities in the poplular press The role of Irish-American newspapers in promoting Irish and

Irish-American issues

The role of Irish and Irish-American authors in promoting Irish causes

The effect of anti-Irish propaganda in the news media

Spring 1992 79

This content downloaded from 72.253.70.31 on Wed, 06 May 2020 19:39:38 UTCAll use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms