Weekly Geographical News #5 Guidelines

Introduction: One of our learning goals in GEOG 2305: Fundamentals of Geography is to appreciate the relevancy and application of geography to everyday living. To that end, I ask that you seek out and find news articles that relate to our course materials each week, and produce a short reflection that summarizes the news article and fits it within the contexts of our geography course materials for that week. You’ll find that our world is continually being shaped by geographical phenomena in profound ways.

In Week 8, we are covering Migration around the world. After you review our course materials, think about the major themes and topics that our course discussed in class. Then, take the following steps:

1. Find a news article published any time after 2020 that relates to course materials of Migration. In particular, seek out and find an article relating to one (or more) of the following topics:
2. Displacement and refugees associated with Afghanistan;
3. The Rohingya migrant crisis;
4. Rural to Urban migration in Sub-Saharan Africa;
5. Rural to Urban migration in China;
6. Burundi and refugees;
7. Refugees and the European Union;
8. Climate migrants/refugees; or
9. Refugees from the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

Note that this assignment is a little different than our prior Geographical News assignments, in that I have limited the number of possible topics you may choose from. I do this deliberately, as these are all contemporary, significant patterns of movement shaping our world, affecting the lives of millions of people.  

• Cite the news article in a consistent Citation Style of your choice. MLA, APA, and Chicago all are appropriate. 

• In 250-400 words, summarize the article’s content and explain why you think it fits into the materials covered in our PowerPoint / other class materials. Your summary should be in your own words, and avoid long quotations from the news article. Similarly, your explanation as to why it fits within the context of our course materials should be original writing.

• Proofread your work for spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Remember that every piece of writing you produce should serve you in some way. In this set of assessments, you’ll be learning new things about our contemporary world, sure, but you also have an opportunity to hone your written communication skills. The skills you develop now will help you in any professional field you choose to pursue now or later in life.

• Upload your Word Document to Turnitin, available on Blackboard.

Pro-Tips:

There are many ways you can go about searching for news items. Google News Search is a decent place to start, but be sure to check the date and place of publication, as the search algorithms often present older material first. I encourage you to explore your options! Sure, MSNBC, Fox, and CNN all cover diverse topics and are ubiquitous in our lives. For international or regional topics about physical geographies, however, they often lack depth and scope. Below are some free (at least limited access) English language news websites you may wish to consult that cover a range of topics and often have long-form journalism. They’re by no means the only sources out there, and I encourage you to explore further. I share them with you, however, because I don’t want you purchasing a subscription to paywall news sites (though if you’re already a subscriber to an outlet like The New Yorker, The Economist, NYT, Washington Post, etc., feel free to use them!). Note, too, that many paywalled sites offer a few free articles a month.

UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency: https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/yemen-emergency.html

While not a news agency per se, this is a go-to resource for contemporary refugee crises, and provides useful contextualizing information. You may explore any of the refugee movements listed on this site.
 

The Conversation (US): https://theconversation.com/us .

The Conversation is a useful website for materials that are intellectually rigorous, but written for lay audiences. All articles are written by academics specializing in their article’s topical focus, and are intended to reach a broad audience. There are several articles that consider migration that have been published here in the last 2 years, including US-Mexico border crossings; Central American migrations; the Syrian refugee crisis; and the Rohingya refugee crisis.

The Conversation (Global Perspectives): https://theconversation.com/global.

Like its US counterpart, The Conversation: Global Perspectives Edition is a useful source of intellectually rigorous yet accessible articles, but with a more explicitly international focus.

The Conversation (Africa Edition): https://theconversation.com/africa.

Like its other counterparts The Conversation: Africa Edition contains numerous articles written by academics on diverse topics, but its geographical focus is on Africa. Because Africa is one of the fastest growing (and developing) regions in the world today, much of The Conversation: Africa Edition contains articles of interest relating to migration geography. In particular, you may wish to search for information about South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, both of which are experiencing mass refugee movements due to political instability.

The Africa Report: https://www.theafricareport.com/in-depth/ .

The Africa Report covers politics, economics, and society topics for the continent of Africa, with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan African states. As one of the fastest growing (and developing) regions in the world today, much of The Africa Report covers topics of interest to demographers and population geographers. Additionally, you can search both the entirety of the website, or focus on individual countries.