Social Movements and Social Media

Evaluate the benefits and challenges of digital news and social media to a democratic society (e.g. weighing such factors as the availability of information, the speed with which it is available, the volume of information and the diversity and number of media outlets).

Evaluate and deconstruct news reports, social media posts, editorials, editorial cartoons, or op-ed commentaries on a public policy issue at the local, state, or national level, reviewing them for the quality of evidence presented, the reliability of sources, and perspectives available from other sources.

Use digital tools to design and produce a significant digital artifact (e.g., multipage website, online portfolio, podcast).

Using primary and secondary sources, analyze the causes and course of one of the following social and political movements, including consideration of the role of protest, advocacy organizations, and active citizen participation. a. Women's rights, including the writings on feminism by Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and others; the availability of the birth control pill; the activism of the National Organization for Women and opposition to the movement by conservative leaders such as Phyllis Schlafly; passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution (1972), and its failure to achieve sufficient ratification by states; Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, the appointment of Sandra Day O'Connor as the first woman Justice of the Supreme Court in 1981, and increasing numbers of women in elected offices in national and state government. b. the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Civil Rights Movement, the impact of world wars on the demand for gay rights, the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, the Gay Pride Movement, and activism and medical research to slow the spread of AIDS in the 1980s; the role of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (2004) and the role of other state courts in providing equal protection for same sex marriage in advance of the United States Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) c. the disability rights movement such as deinstitutionalization, independent living, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975), the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1990) d. the environmental protection movement (e.g., the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring; the 1970 federal Clean Air Act; the 1972 Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act; the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act and subsequent amendments) e. the movement to protect the health and rights of workers, and improve working conditions and wages (e.g., César Chávez and Dolores Huerta and the migrant farmworkers' movement, workplace protections against various forms of discrimination and sexual harassment) f. the movement to protect the rights, self-determination, and sovereignty of Native Peoples (e.g., the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, the American Indian Movement, the Wounded Knee Incident at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973, the Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, and the efforts of Native Peoples' groups to preserve Native cultures, gain federal or state recognition and raise awareness of Native American history

Write arguments (e.g., essays, letters to the editor, advocacy speeches) to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.