The Media and
the Government
Do you have the Right to Know?
With recent allegations of the 33,000 emails that Hillary Clinton "lost", coupled with the $916 billion in taxes that were unpaid by Donald Trump...Americans seem to be increasingly upset about the lack of information and the "hidden secrets" in today's politics. Historically, the media has been regarded as the "Fourth Branch of Government" (after the President, the Congress, and the Supreme Court), but many feel that even the media itself isn't doing the job it should do in investigating stories about our government.
The above screenshots show online discussion via the Reddit "subreddit": r/The_Donald. Basically, this "thread" is a way for people to post their thoughts and "findings" about Donald Trump in a community of like-minded people.
From the titles of the posts themselves, you can see that people are very interested in Hillary Clinton's emails and something called WikiLeaks. We'll learn more about that later, but to me, the most important "theme" is that people want to know, and spread, government secrets!
Directions:
For this activity, you'll be "discovering" some secrets of the American government that have been "revealed" over time. You'll click on each "button" below to learn more about it. But! Before you do, you have to do the following:
- Answer: Do you want to know that secret? On a scale of 1-10, how much do you wanna know?
- Why? Why do you need to know? (Curiosity? "Click bait"? It's something that will change your opinion? It's your duty as an American citizen?)
- Then, click on the the button to "learn" the secret.
- And, on your sheet, answer: What do you now know? And...
- Did you need to know that answer? Does it affect you and your life?
