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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did the media handle the worst aspects of the war?

2. How did advertisers change their strategies during the war?

3. What was one innovation in book publishing that came out of the war?

4. How closely did the official and public media outlets coordinate their coverage?

5. Overall, the media presented the war effort as being which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the media imply God's involvement in the war?

2. How did the media interpret the suffering of the nation's citizenry?

3. Simply stated, what is the policy of "accentuating the positive"?

4. How and why did the media fail to report the entire story of the war?

5. How did advertisers think of and take advantage of the war?

6. Overall, what was the media portrayal of the war like?

7. What did front line troops usually believe about depictions of their wartime experiences?

8. How often did soldiers read and what impact did it have on them?

9. What was the overall reading experience of citizens and soldiers like during the war?

10. How did soldiers react to the media's presentation of the war?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When it entered into World War II, America was at a disadvantage in terms of its equipment, and struggled long and hard to correct these problems.

1) Explain the state of military equipment in the American army when the US entered the war. Discuss some of the problems in design, scale and distribution.

2) Describe some of the consequences of these inadequacies for American troops on the battlefield.

3) Discuss the process that brought America's army up to date and in line with modern standards.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the war, the media made a concerted effort to accentuating the positive aspects of stories about the war and to downplay, misrepresent, or ignore negative aspects. This gave Americans a sanitized vision of the war that was easier to continue to support than the real war.

1) Explain the policy of "accentuating the positive" in the media, and explain why it was adopted.

2) Discuss the types of stories that were likely to be reported by the mainstream state and public media and the impression of the war that these reports gave to the common citizen.

3) Describe some of the grizzly, unsettling, and unpleasant aspects of the war that were unlikely to be reported on. Discuss how these types of stories and details were handled.

4) Discuss the impact that the policy of "accentuating the positive" had on American soldiers.

Essay Topic 3

Most soldiers quickly developed a feeling that there was no meaning for the war. Although they were frequently told what they were fighting for, they had no idea why they were fighting,

1) Explain why many soldiers felt that there was an ideological void in the meaning and purpose of the war.

2) Discuss some attempts that the media made to fill this void and discuss why these attempts did not resonate with the soldiers. What were troops told they were fighting for?

3) Explain the consequences of this ideological void on the psychological states and lives of individual soldiers.

(see the answer keys)

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