Kennedy felt great pressure to have the United States "catch up to and overtake" the Soviet Union in the "space race." Four years after the Sputnik shock of 1957, the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had become the first human in space on April 12, 1961, greatly embarrassing the U.S. While Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, he only flew on a short suborbital flight instead of orbiting the Earth, as Gagarin had done. In addition, the Bay of Pigs fiasco in mid-April put unquantifiable pressure on Kennedy. He wanted to announce a program that the U.S. had a strong chance at achieving before the Soviet Union. After consulting with Vice President Johnson, NASA Administrator James Webb, and other officials, he concluded that landing an American on the Moon would be a very challenging technological feat, but an area of space exploration in which the U.S. actually had a potential lead. Thus the cold war is the primary contextual lens through which many historians now view Kennedy's speech.
This part of the thesis would be considered the topic, more specifically it would be considered the <em>introduction of the topic to study</em> since the thesis revolves around, I assume, Isaac Newton and you are offering a brief 'summary' of his life and accomplishments.
However if the reason to mention Sir Isaac Newton is to support an idea or a statement this could be considered a subtopic. It is subjective and directly related to the field of study you're doing the thesis for.
Hope this helps!
Out of all of these I would say that Media is a way of communicating! Although, media can be used for multiple things!!
