GEOGRAPHY

GEOGRAPHY

Your task this semester will be to “adopt” one of the newspapers listed below and to explore how
our geography course themes are being played out within another part of the world. Each of these
newspapers has an English language version that is accessible on the Internet (addresses follow
the newspaper title). Once you decide upon a part of the world and a newspaper that interests you,
you are required to complete an assignment that is due near the end of the semester. START
EARLY, because assembling your portfolio of news stories will take some time and it will
require some thought to put your examples into the context of the course. You needn’t wait until
we cover a particular portion of the world in class…feel free to browse the text in appropriate
chapters to get a sense of what some key regional issues might be in a part of the world you wish
to explore. The assignment has two parts and both are required for full credit:
PART ONE (30 points):
Assemble a portfolio of SIX articles from the newspaper (provide title of article, date, and copy
of article) that you can argue are OUTSTANDING examples of timely issues/problems/events
shaping that particular region AND which fit clearly into one or more of the course’s 5 regional
themes (1)Environmental Geography, 2)Population and Settlement, 3) Cultural Diversity, 4)
Geopolitical Setting, and 5) Social/Economic Setting). Articles must be dated since 10/1/15.
Choose articles that focus on stories within your region. (Don’t choose a Russian article that
reports on a typhoon in China).
FOR EACH OF THE SIX ARTICLES, also note which of the five themes (1 or more) best fit
the topic (Environment, Population, Culture, etc) and write a one-paragraph summary of the
article that makes such a connection clear. You may choose all your articles dealing with one
theme (for example, environmental issues or geopolitics) OR you can vary it to include examples
of any and all themes. USE ONLY ONE NEWSPAPER SOURCE. You will have a total of six
summary paragraphs and six articles to turn in.
PART TWO (30 points):
Answer the following more general discussion question (about two pages (typed) total):
How do recent issues and events in your region covered by the newspaper illustrate the
general processes of a) “DIVERSITY” and/or b) “GLOBALIZATION” within your
selected region?
You can emphasize “diversity” or “globalization” in your discussion or you can explore how
both are evident. You may want to revisit initial discussions of these ideas in the text (Chapter 1).
For this discussion, you may certainly rely on MORE than just the six articles used above in
Part One.…you may also use examples/events discussed elsewhere in these newspapers.
NEWSPAPERS
1. Granma International (Cuba) http://www.granma.cu/idiomas/ingles/index.html
2. St. Petersburg Times (Russia) www.sptimes.ru/
3. Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review (Turkey) http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/
4. Lagos Vanguard (Nigeria) http://www.vanguardngr.com/
5. Jerusalem Post (Israel) http://www.jpost.com/
6. Times of India (India) http://www.timesofindia.com
7. People’s Daily (China) http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/