Newspaper Archive Paper Assignment Sheet

This assignment asks you to be aware of the way in which the presentation of information can be as important as the information itself. You will further your understanding of some aspect of the history presented in South Carolina in the Modern Age by analyzing the newspaper reporting of the time available through the Library of Congress archives.

Assignment Prompt

Select an event specifically dealing with South Carolina from South Carolina in the Modern Age to research and find an article from the Library of Congress' digital newspaper archive that was written about the event during the time in which the event occurred. Write a 2-page response to the article that takes into account the ways in which the subject of the article is presented: the overall tone of the piece, language employed, perspective of the author. Your aims in the paper are twofold. You will need to discuss why and how this article adds to our understanding of the event from the textbook. You will need to discuss the ways in which the tone and language of the article betrays a bias on the issue or suggests how the perspective on the issue was different during the time of the event than in reflection in a history textbook.

Remember that the Library of Congress archives only, currently, catalogue papers up to 1922. Some examples of events could be a riot or an election or the introduction of a new technology. You want to find an original piece of reportage on the event to complement the presentation in the history textbook. Remember that you are discussing both South Carolina in the Modern Age and the newspaper article, so these must be cited properly.

Accessing the Archives

These instructions are mirrored (with pictures of the steps) in slides on Blackboard.

Go tohttp://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/. This is the main page for the site. You will be able to do a general search from this page or specify a set of years or a state to limit the search. Type the appropriate search terms, based on what you have selected as your focus, in the search space provided. Limit the years and state, if appropriate. Note that the LOC archives only include newspapers up to the year 1922.

You will be directed to a page, or pages, from newspapers that contain these search terms. (You are welcome to use the "Advanced Search" tab on the main page, too, if this further limiting will be helpful.) Look through these newspaper articles until you find one that is suited for your topic and interest. Once you are on the page of a particular paper, you can zoom in and out of the paper, for ease of reading. A more detailed description of this process is in the slides available on Blackboard.

Once you have found an article that suits the assignment, you will need to record the title of the edition of the newspaper (just above the article window) and the link to this page (just below the article window). You will include this information at the top of the first page of your paper. You will want to refer to the article by name throughout the paper and cite the article properly. There is a function, just above the article window, that allows you to download the page, as well. Be sure to save a copy of the article.