JOURNAL 320 Kathy Roberts Forde

History of American Journalism

Final Project: 50% course grade

Pentagon Papers Digital Public History Project

Introduction: For your final project, you are not writing the typical historical research
paper. Instead, you are creating an audio slideshow, podcast, or other type of digital public
history project that documents and explores history for a popular audience. You will work
as part public historian, part journalist. Your digital project will tell a story about the past
and invite your audience to think about the ways the past informs the present.

You will work on a 3-4 member research team. Our broad topic: the Pentagon Papers and
the press. Your team will choose a narrow topic within our broad topic, and we will work
collectively to make sure each research team in the class has a unique topic. Your team’s
topic needs to be clearly defined. It needs to be appropriately focused and narrow. It needs
to be do-able—that is, you need to make sure you have access to primary and secondary
sources that help you research, understand, and tell your chosen story from the past. A
special feature of our research will be working in the newly acquired Daniel Ellsberg
Papers in the UMass Du Bois Library (Special Collections, Floor 25). As you know, Daniel
Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press.

You need enough visuals to make an audio slideshow or visually-based digital public
history project, if that’s the direction you choose. You need enough sound if you decide to
create a podcast public history project. And finally, you need a topic you will actually enjoy
learning about! As you consider possible topics, you need to make sure your topic fits all
these criteria.

Remember that history includes historical facts as well as interpretation of the facts.
History can be narrative, descriptive, and explanatory. And it is always interpretive. That is,
history always makes an argument about the past, a statement or thesis about the what, the
how, and the meanings of the past. Keep this in mind as you work on your project.

Digital public history project: Digital public history projects can take many forms. You
could create a 3 to 5 minute audio slideshow. You could create a WordPress site that
presents primary sources with historical explanations and allows users to explore the
sources as they learn the history. You could create a short documentary film (5-10
minutes) that tells a historical story for a popular audience. You could create a podcast that
does this. You could create a brief digital graphic novel that tells a story about the Pentagon
Papers and the press.

Your final project must be publishable. That means it must follow all applicable copyright
and permissions regulations while making use of “fair use” exceptions (we will follow
guidelines proposed by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George
Mason University). I hope we can arrange to publish our projects on the UMass Library
website to highlight the Daniel Ellsberg Papers; thus, your project needs to meet
professional publication criteria).

Research: You must use both primary and secondary sources in researching your topic, at
least five of each.

Secondary sources include books, journal articles, serious magazine articles, and book
chapters by historians, scholars, and credible authors about a given topic (you can use
course readings).

Primary sources for this project include news materials, such as newspaper and magazine
articles and editorials, television news broadcasts, photojournalism, etc., as well as
correspondence, reports, memos, and other documents and materials in the Daniel Ellsberg
Papers. You will almost certainly want to use the New York Times Historical Newspaper
and the Washington Post Historical Newspaper collections in the UMass Library Proquest
Database.

When you examine your primary sources, please consider these questions. Who created
these news products? For what purposes? What kind of news products are they, and what
does this reveal about their uses and meanings? What were the likely meanings of these
news products for both the producers and the consumers of them? What was the context in
which the news product was created?

Format: Your project must include the following components:

1) Final project topic proposal with explanation of topic, the kind of digital public
history project you will create, and the types of materials you will need to gather.
Due Thursday, March 12

2) Annotated bibliography of secondary sources (5 sources). Due Tuesday, March 31

3) Annotated bibliography of primary sources (5 sources). Due Tuesday, April 7

4) The digital public history project. You will present your project to the class on either
Thursday, April 23, or Tuesday, April 28. And you will turn in a copy to me on the
day of your presentation.
Final Research Project: The Proposal

Your proposal for your final research project on the Pentagon Papers and the press should
take the following format:

Title: Provide a provisional title for your project.

Topic: In several sentences, identify and describe your topic, providing a basic explanation
of its scope and significance. Identify the specific time period your project will cover.

Team leader: Identify your team leader and provide email address and mobile number for
texting.

Team members: Identify team members and provide email addresses and mobile
numbers for texting.

Précis: Provide a summary, at least two paragraphs in length, about what your team has
learned so far about your topic. What are the controlling research questions you hope to
answer as you research your topic further? What kind of materials might you find in the
Ellsberg Papers to help you with your research?

Team working plan: It’s critical that each team builds a respectful team dynamic where
work tasks are clearly and equitably assigned and each member completes their tasks
thoughtfully and on time. Please identify general times during the week when everyone on
your team can meet to work on the project. Please also identify tools you will use to
communicate within the group, assign tasks, organize work, review work together
(including assignments to be turned-in), and share materials. Be as detailed as possible
about these tools and how you will use them. Explain how your team will work
cooperatively together and your plan for handling conflicts should they arise.

Team member skills and knowledge: For each team member, describe skills and
knowledge useful for the final project. For example, some students may have specific digital
media skills. Some may have strong familiarity with UMass library research databases.
Others may have well-developed historical research skills or strong organizational skills or
experience working with online collaboration tools like Slack, Trello, Asana, Google Drive,
etc. Each team member should also provide what they perceive to be the biggest weakness
they bring to this project and suggest how other team members can provide support and
accountability.

Team member pledge: Each team member must sign and date the proposal, pledging to
do their share of work, to meet deadlines, and to do everything they can to build respect on
the team and minimize conflict.

Due: Thursday, March 12, beginning of class

Final Research Project: The Annotated Bibliographies

You have some historical research to do before you can put together your digital public
history project on your chosen topic on the history of American journalism. These
annotated bibliography assignments encourage you to complete your research well before
the final project is due.

Remember that an digital public history project likely requires many visual objects, so as
you research your topic, keep a file of images to use (with source citations for your credit
slide at the end of the slideshow). If you’re doing a podcast, keep sound files.

Annotated bibliography of secondary sources: Locate 5 journal articles and/or books

that provide historical context or pertain substantively to the topic and central question
you expect to answer in your historical research paper. Provide a citation for each (using
Chicago Manual of Style) and an annotation describing the topic and historical
argument/narrative/findings of the article/book. Suggest briefly how each article/book
informs your own research topic and question. (Each annotation should be a robust
paragraph in length. Due Tuesday, March 31

Annotated bibliography of primary sources: Locate 5 published or unpublished primary

source materials (e.g., newspaper articles, magazine articles, advertisements, census
reports, legislative histories, diaries, autobiographies, letters, economic information, oral
histories, news broadcasts, etc.) that are available at the University of South Carolina, or in
electronic format. Provide a citation for each (using Chicago Manual of Style) and an
annotation describing the nature and content of each source. Suggest briefly how each
primary source informs your research. Include archival information if relevant. Due
Tuesday, April 7
JOURNAL 320
Kathy Roberts Forde

Final Project Grading Rubric: Digital History Project

 Topic focuses on the history of the Pentagon Papers and the press.

 The topic is appropriately narrow.

 Historical story told in project is focused, easy to follow, accurate, and meaningful.

 The digital history project is created for a popular audience as a work of public history.
It invites the viewer to consider how the past informs the present.

 The digital history project provides accurate historical facts and meaningful
interpretation of facts.

 The project includes an introduction of some sort with title.

 Project includes credits that acknowledge sources used.

 Primary source annotated bibliography (hard copy, turned in previously)

 Secondary source annotated bibliography (hard copy, turned in previously)

 Project is appropriate length/”size” and was presented to the class

 Project conforms to copyright and “fair use” best practices

 The digital history project presentation did not experience any avoidable technical
difficulty.

 Digital history project is quality product and is turned in to Kathy in easily accessible
digital form on day of presentation (USB drive or link to online storage site).

Project assessment:

Project proposal grade: ________ 5%

Secondary source annotated bibliography grade: ______5%
Primary source annotated bibliography grade: ______5%
Digital public history project grade:_______35%

Final project grade: _________ (50% course grade)