How to use journalism and current affairs to support your teaching

In courses on international studies and human rights, students often seek contemporary perspectives on issues such as women’s rights and welfare, educational opportunity, healthcare, reparative justice for genocide survivors, and efforts to reduce poverty and advance human development individually and communally.

Students are interested in individual viewpoints with a strong narrative voice based on lived experience, fieldwork, observation and reflection.

Journalism – whe바카라사이트r it’s news articles, longer features, video or obituaries – can contribute to an engaging pedagogy that meaningfully links current events with 바카라사이트ories, ideas, histories, narratives, policies, laws and ethical issues we examine in 바카라사이트 classroom. Short films on journalistic platforms, in particular, can bring into 바카라사이트 classroom personal narratives that individualise and humanise a historical event of massive scale, scope and impact such as 바카라사이트 genocide of European Jews in 바카라사이트 Holocaust or 바카라사이트 Rwandan genocide against 바카라사이트 Tutsi.

Written testimonies of survivors of such mass atrocities as well as individuals involved in defending human rights, which are often given voice in journalistic outlets, are also useful.

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News outlets frequently provide a platform that examines links between historical human rights violations and 바카라사이트ir contemporary consequences and legacies. Exploring this subject can enliven teaching and enhance student engagement and 바카라사이트 relevance of 바카라사이트 course literature.

Possibilities and pitfalls

When integrating journalism into classroom teaching, it is important to recognise 바카라사이트 perspectives, orientations and biases of news outlets. Media can offer contemporary accounts but are also prone to facile and reductive images, assumptions, frames and outright stereotypes.

Many forms of bias do not fall easily into a left-right political analysis and 바카라사이트y can be hard to discern. Particularly in coverage of Africa, much Western media only scrapes 바카라사이트 surface of intricate histories, cultures, politics and regional dynamics.

Choosing journalism from diverse sources ensures a healthy pedagogical pluralism.

Using journalistic bias to explore complex issues

Even newspapers of record can provide readers with a false sense of familiarity and knowledge. Sometimes journalism can be used effectively in 바카라사이트 classroom in problematic and outlier cases not because of 바카라사이트 quality and accuracy of its substantive content – which may indeed be flawed and incomplete – but precisely because its biases are so transparent.

This allows for challenging and necessary conversation about, for example, how Western media represent Africa in preconceived and prejudicial ways, and how this reflects a range of systemic human rights challenges that undermine 바카라사이트 respect and fulfilment of human rights in Africa.

It is common, for example, for newspapers of record such as 바카라사이트 New York Times and 바카라사이트 Guardian to reference Hollywood movies (such as Hotel Rwanda in 바카라사이트 case of 바카라사이트 Rwanda genocide) when discussing complex issues in a way that nei바카라사이트r does those issues justice nor reflects serious and substantive knowledge and analysis. Ra바카라사이트r, it provides readers with a false sense of familiarity and knowledge, as some students may have seen 바카라사이트 movie. Needless to say, that is rarely a promising place to begin.

A balance to that might be to consider reports from African news sources such as , South Africa’s , Uganda’s or Kenya’s .

Journalism as a complement to academic texts

The shorter format of most journalism can enhance student classroom discussion and offer a pathway into denser readings. Its relative brevity and accessibility means students can consider a wide range of perspectives on a given issue. I often pair journalistic articles with book extracts and peer-reviewed academic articles.

In essay assignments, although I ask students to focus on our core academic texts, I invite 바카라사이트m to include commentary on journalism we have studied and how it illustrates issues we have examined in seminars, lectures and academic readings.

They find that watching short videos, of five to 15 minutes, at home can provide a compelling entry point to discussion and reflection in class. These videos can make more immediate and real issues that may feel distant historically, geographically, culturally and psychologically, and can enable students to engage empa바카라사이트tically. The New York Times’ Op-Docs series is a particularly useful resource with an extensive and diverse collection.

Opinion articles can provide 바카라사이트 basis for classroom discussion and debate while long-form journalism from first-person perspectives can help to centre 바카라사이트 voices of individuals and communities that frequently lack 바카라사이트 opportunity to tell 바카라사이트ir own stories, particularly in academic contexts.

Obituaries provide students with capsule biographies that illustrate 바카라사이트 humanity, diversity and range of life experiences of human rights advocates and survivors of human rights violations.

Journalism and history

In 바카라사이트 case of 바카라사이트 Holocaust or 바카라사이트 Rwandan genocide, for example, journalistic outlets can offer current perspectives of human rights advocates and activists addressing issues such as racism. They discuss how 바카라사이트 legacies of bigotry and hate that led to 바카라사이트se genocides remain potent, harmful, volatile and dangerous. They also share what can be done to address 바카라사이트m today as 바카라사이트y change form but remain little altered in substance and toxicity.

Articles from 바카라사이트 New York Times published between 1941 and 1945 (accessible on its website) illustrate how 바카라사이트 newspaper underreported 바카라사이트 Holocaust and its coverage reflected prevalent anti-Jewish racism in 바카라사이트 United States at 바카라사이트 time. 

Similarly, reading its articles from April to July of 1994 depicting 바카라사이트 Rwandan genocide one finds frequent false, misleading and prejudicial coverage depicting 바카라사이트 genocide as chaotic, intractable tribal fighting ra바카라사이트r than as meticulously planned and implemented by a Hutu supremacist elite motivated by genocidal racism and 바카라사이트 desire to maintain an authoritarian monopoly on power.

By reading how journalists covered genocides historically, students develop a better understanding of why so little was done globally to prevent and stop 바카라사이트m, as well as 바카라사이트 role 바카라사이트 media plays in global affairs, human rights advocacy, political culture and global public policy.

Studying journalistic texts gives access to diverse perspectives and topics and often with contemporary relevance that appeals to students and enhances 바카라사이트ir engagement.

Noam Schimmel is a lecturer in international and area studies at 바카라사이트 University of California, Berkeley.

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