“Digging Up the Muck”
This Assignment is DUE: Friday February 26th, 2009 NO EXCEPTIONS!!!
Assignment: You be the Muckraker, someone who is investigating an issue that may be considered: Controversial, Interesting, Helpful for American Society.
Look at Past Muckrakers: Upton Sin Clair exposing the Meat Packing Issue and Florence Kelly exposing Child Labor.
Think About what Muckrakers do: Attempting to uncover the truth about Current Issues. You may choose to examine something more “sensational” or “popular”. However remember your main goal is to UNCOVER the TRUTH.
You may want to look into, Fast Food Chains, Auto Racing Scandals, Sports Scandals, Money Scandals, Car or Credit Card Fraud, Patronage Today, Government Corruption, Health Care, School Bullying, Beauty in American Society ( Make-Up), Chemicals in Food , Energy Drinks, Oil Companies, Video Games, Advertising, Infomercials
You may want to look at local stories in the area.
You may use Historical Issues as well but think about something you are interested in.
Your Assignment:
Pick a topic that you are interested in (i.e. sports, fashion, even Wikipedia)
Pick a Historical Muckraking Topic: Meat Packing: FDA, Standard Oil
Is there something about the topic questionable? (Cheating in sports, magazines using airbrushing, Wikipedia: A Reliable Source?—Banned from Middlebury College)
BE THE MUCKRAKER: Examine the Topics, look into different sources, HAVE CONCRETE EVIDENCE.
Presentation
You can either:
a. Write a 1-2 Page Paper comparing both muckraking topics. Be sure to explain what you discovered while you were digging up the muck. Please provide information that is NEW and INTERESTING to YOU.
or
b. Visual Representation: You cam make your project into a newspaper, or Venn diagram or a collage.
In your paper/project please be sure to include:
The Topic and Position (Your Opinion)
Sources (Explain the Sources)(Back up your Opinion)*******
Why is this information you’re examining important for people to know?
How would this draw attention?