Newspaper Exercise

For the newspaper exercise, it is recommended that you use The New York Times, one of the most respected English-language newspapers well known for its international coverage. You may use other newspapers (Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, etc) but be sure to consult with me first.

Week One: You should skim the newspaper for articles or editorials that report or comment on events bearing some relation to nationalist politics, culture or society. Clip or photocopy interesting articles.

Week Two: Select an unfolding story that you would like to follow in the newspaper. By May 29, you should submit to me a brief paragraph describing the story you have selected. Some stories may require more background knowledge and reading than others.

Week Three, Four, Five: Continue clipping and photocopying pertinent articles from the newspaper. You should begin writing about the story in preparation for the final paper.

Week Six: Write a five page paper analyzing the story you have been covering. It may be helpful to incorporate some of the reading you have been studying for the course into the analysis of the newspaper material.

There may be various approaches to the paper.

a) Focus on the manner in which the newspaper analyses the story, analyzing for example, whether the reporters have a set of assumptions regarding nationalist politics, culture and society that prefigure their coverage or, alternatively, how does the reporting of the story itself contribute to the construction of the nationalist issue you have been tracking.

b) You may even conclude that the story you had followed had only an attenuated relationship to nationalist politics, culture and society. In this case, you might use course materials to show how the story you are tracking is non-nationalist in nature.

c) Your analysis might show how you story reflects a new type of nationalist politics, culture or society or that your story relates to nationalist politics, culture or society in a unique manner because of the particular context in which it arises. Your analysis might, for example, trace the unique effects of race, gender, class or religion on the particular form of nationalist politics, culture or society that you studied.

The paper is due on Monday, June 24.