Purpose:
to keep up with current events in Africa
to examine the differences in news coverage between the African and Western press
to become more familiar with news resources
See syllabus for schedule.
What:
Each report is worth 10 points.
Each person will do a total of 7 reports.
Each person will be responsible for keeping up with the news in their assigned country and for presenting a brief (2-3 minute) summary of one news topic to the class as assigned.
For each topic, find:
one article in the Western press and
one article in the African press.
If you can't find a topic with coverage in both the Western and African press, find two articles that are as closely related as possible.
Articles should be from the same general period of time.
Each person will turn in a printout of each of their news stories. Be sure to include your name, the name of the source and the date.
You may choose any topic - but be prepared to explain your choice.
Pay attention to who's producing the paper: the government, a specific group, etc. Understand how this affects both what articles are published and what is said.
How:
Find one medium to long (1-2 pages
printed out) OR two short
(1 page or less printed out) articles from each of
the following:
an African news source:
The African News Service, allafrica.com (http://allafrica.com/media/)
Panapress, the Pan African News Agency (http://www.panapress.com/)
Find a paper from your area using Yahoo News by country (http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/By_Region/Countries/ ) a
The
Electronic Newspapers from Africa guide from Columbia University
Libraries has a good list of online newspapers. Not all are in
English.
a Western news source:
Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe. (Requires WSU Username & password offcampus) Includes fulltext of New York Times
Proquest Newspapers (Requires WSU Username & password offcampus) Includes fulltext of Wall Street Journal
Newspaper Source (Requires WSU Username & password offcampus) Includes fulltext of Christian Science Monitor
Type in keywords (e.g. aids, women, environment, etc.)
You may also use CNN (cnn.com), the BBC
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/) or a similar Western European/US news service.
Be sure that your name, the name of your source and the date of the assignment are on the printout.
Last updated 01/27/2008 . Please send comments to Kathy Payne, Head of Reference