Introduction

You are a reporter or staff member for one of two New York Tribune staffs assigned to the task of creating a newspaper during the American Civil War. Your job as reporters and staff members is to communicate, through your writing, a description of all aspects of life at the time. Your audience is the subscribers to your publication who live in the surrounding community. Each reporter or staff member from each staff will receive a specific assignment and location from the Editor-in-Chief.

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Task

Your staff consists of a group of northern journalists that are assigned the task of researching, writing, and editing a single edition of your newspaper that focuses on the year 1861, following the attack on Fort Sumter.

Each reporter is responsible for researching and writing one of the following:

1. a news article from a field reporter at the battle of Fort Sumter
2. a news article from a field reporter about life in camp for the soldiers
3. a human interest story that tells of what life is like back home
4. a biographical sketch of Abraham Lincoln

5. a biographical sketch of Horace Greeley

In addition, your staff will also be responsible for adding some of the following items to your newspaper:

1. photos
2. advertisements
3. fashion review

4. recipes

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Process

Establish the needed jobs for each member of your staff in order to get an edition of the paper published. For example: editor, field reporter, social or feature writer, a political cartoonist, a photographer, a lay-out editor or subscriber.

Once you have decided on your staffing, research the Internet and other resources for information that will answer the who, what, where, when and why of the article that you are writing.

• Write the articles.
• Edit the articles.
• Layout the newspaper, be sure to include titles, headlines, bylines, etc.
• Publish the newspaper. The newspaper is to be published using a desktop publishing program such as MS Publisher, a word processor such as MS Word, or a Web page created using MS FrontPage.

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Resources

Resource Links

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Learning Advice

Even though you will represent the views of the Union, remember your journalistic position and the responsibility to report the news objectively. Human interest stories and editorials are the areas for you to interject a more biased viewpoint.  Keep in mind your audience at all times.

When writing your articles, be sure to reflect the conditions of the time. Here are samples of the kinds of questions you may want to ask as you are researching:

• What was life like for people in your region at the time? (i.e. dress, food, medicine, home life)
• What were the attitudes of people in your region at the time?
• How did the events of the battle affect the  overall war?
• What was the geography like, and did it play any role or have any influence in the battle?
• What did the soldiers think of the war at this time? (use diaries, letters home, or journals)
• What was the media of the time saying about the battle vs. what actually was happening?
• What part if any did political cartoons play in the war? Analyze the cartoon, decide what the artist is trying to convey .
• Who were the military leaders in this battle?
• What were the particulars of the battle? (i.e. size of units, casualties, major turning points in the battle, participants in the battle)?
• What political events took place near the time of the battle?
• What were the significant contributions of people highlighted?

Even though the Civil War took place in the 1800's, take advantage of the technology today. You can download maps or graphics and put them into your newspaper. Or, once you have gathered your resources and written your newspaper draft, you might decide to use a multimedia program to create the presentation.

Most importantly, use your the talents of your staff. Divide the tasks but share the ideas. Discuss your ideas with as many people on your staff as possible.

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Evaluation

• Are all required articles in the project?
• Are the articles clear and concise and well written?
• Are your articles supported by accurate research?
• Have you included human interest advertisements, classifieds, cartoons, etc.?
• Does your newspaper include photos and other related artwork?
• Is your newspaper informative, persuasive, and appealing?

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Conclusion

We hope, that by doing this exercise, you have learned a bit more about the American Civil War. How easy was it to find information on the Internet dealing with events of the Civil War? Were some of the sites you encountered targeted towards a specific audience or point of view? If so, why do you think this occurs? How do you think others will respond when they see our newspapers? Do you think we will receive positive or negative feedback? Why?

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