How to organize your first war coverage paper

Three sections would correspond nicely to the grading criteria:

1. The interview

2. The evidence (media coverage)

3. Analysis (the comparisons between the interviewee’s memories and the actual coverage)

Start with an introduction: What you set out to do; why you’re interested in this particular war or subject; how and why you selected your interviewee and what you asked him or her.

Subheads would be very useful, not only because it will help the reader but also because it will help you organize your thoughts.

Then, explain the interview. What did you learn about your subject’s memories of the war event and how he or she could the information? What event did you decide to focus on for the second part of the assignment – finding media coverage to analyze. Make sure to include the details – the relevant dates, names and ages.

Next, describe your evidence: Media coverage from the same time period that describes the event. Include specific references to the articles or broadcasts.

Finally, compare and contrast what you found talking to your interviewee and what you found in the documents. You may not have a perfect match; that’s okay. Your interviewee may have remembered everything perfectly, and that’s okay, too! Do your best to analyze your evidence and to suggest how it might apply to understanding communications in wartime.

Here are some hypothetical examples of how your paper might be organized: Remember, because this example is written for HTML, the presentation style is different from what you will need to use in your paper in hard copy (Double space, indented first line, no extra space between paragraphs, 12-point type, etc. See the instructions. and your MLA Stylebook.)

The interview

[Example 1.]

When my grandfather was 17, President Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the commander of U.S. troops in South Korea, in a disagreement over whether to invade China to fight the Korean War. His high school teacher required him to listen to radio broadcasts and read newspaper stories in April 1951 about the firing, the subsequent parades for the general and MacArthur’s “old soldiers never die” speech to Congress on April 19. The coverage made him want to vote for MacArthur for president, rather than Truman, but he wasn’t old enough to vote and MacArthur wasn’t nominated in 1952 anyway.

My grandfather’s name is John Edward Beauchamp, and he is 73 years old. He is my mother’s dad and in 1969, their family lived in Portland. After he finished high school, he enlisted in the army, but the fighting was mostly over and he wasn’t sent to Korea. He still thinks MacArthur was badly treated by both Truman and the press. When I interviewed him by e-mail on Jan. 13, he told me that he …. (continue with more observations and details)

The evidence

General MacArthur’s firing by President Truman and his return to the U.S. was front-page news for weeks. The Chicago Tribune carried dozens of stories between April 11 and April 19, 1952, as the former war commander appeared in rallies and parades leading up to his speech to Congress. The coverage appeared to be very supportive, especially in the Tribune, which ran several pictures and stories of the march for MacCarthur in Chicago.

(Examples, description, citation)

My grandfather remembers hearing the speech on radio and reading about it in the Oregonian. I found coverage in both the Oregonian and the Oregon Journal on April 20 and April 21, and editorials that differed on Truman’s handing of the affair. Contrary to his recollections, however, the coverage seemed to be strongly supportive of General MacArthur.

(Examples, description, citation)

For my second document, I looked at TIME Magazine, which put MacArthur’s picture on the cover and praised his military while strongly criticizing Truman.

(Examples, description, citation)

Analysis

It was very interesting to compare my grandfather’s memories of the incident with the stories in that appeared in newspapers and magazines. There were some differences between the news coverage and his personal recollections, but the themes were very consistent in praising General MacCarthur and questioning the leadership of President Truman. This doesn't mean that one version of the event is necessarily more valid than another, but it does show how perceptions can differ among different people who were alive at the same time.

This project also has given me a better understanding of how coverage of events in wartime can affect everyday people. My grandfather was already thinking about going into the army when he finished high school, but the reports of MacArthur’s firing convinced him he needed to do his part to win the war.

[Example 2.]

My grandmother remembers President Lyndon Johnson announcing in August 1964 that two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats. Not long after that, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and the U.S. began to send large numbers of troops to South Vietnam.

My grandmother, who was in training to become a nurse, decided to enlist in the Army after she finished school to care for wounded soldiers. She served two years in an Army hospital and was shocked by the terrible cost of the war. The more wounded soldiers she saw, the more she questioned whether the war was worth it. If the news coverage in 1964 had been less enthusiastic and more skepticial of the White House in the first place, she believes, the public wouldn’t have let the President send all those troops in the first place. It was such a waste. When I interviewed her Jan. 14, she was still angry, all these years later.

(continue observations, details)

Evidence

For my first document, I looked at the newspaper coverage in the Seattle Times, because that newspaper was very popular in Seattle, where my grandmother was living in 1964. The story about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, was on Page 1. There was only one news story, but there was a supportive editorial on inside page. Both quoted President Johnson at length and did not include any other viewpoints.

(More details, observations)

For magazine coverage, I looked at Newsweek magazine for the two weeks following the announcement. There were long stories about Johnson’s announcement and an assessment of the growing conflict in South Vietnam, which was being invaded by the Communist North.

(More analysis, observations, citation)

When I looked at the news coverage of the White House announcement, I was surprised at how factual it seemed, but also how one-sided. The news reflected only the President’s point of view about the incident and the Communist threat in Southeat Asia.

(More description, observations, citation)

Analysis

From talking to my grandmother, I learned that presidential announcements about war are taken as truth when presented uncritically in the news, and that people respond to those reports, even to the point of changing their lives to do what think is necessary to help their country. I was also surprised at the intensity of my grandmother’s feelings about what she felt was a betrayal by a deceptive President and the news media who were his accomplices.

(More analysis)