News Source for Students?

[David Graber]

Re: suggestion to use Google alerts based on the search term "Russia".

The problem I have with the newswires is that they tend to have little background/context and seem very focused on very specific events-of-the-day, prominent individuals and celebrities, business developments, environmental problems, human-rights/health concerns, human interest stories, etc., from an American news perspective, generally quite removed from the sorts of themes and historical notes that come from literature and culture classes.

Here are some examples from the Central European Literature course I am teaching now: as we read literature about the Nazi occupation of Poland, I was able to point out to the class that this is still a hot issue in Germany, and that a German politician just weeks ago claimed that Poland was mobilizing at the time the Germans invaded (which some German politicians took to mean that she was claiming that Germany was responding to a perceived Polish threat). And when we discussed short stories from concentration camps, and why the Roma were rounded up, I brought in the fact that the Roma are still a hot issue in Europe, and that France just expelled a group of Roma.

My hope is that this kind of service would help the students to be aware that what we are covering in class is not just limited to the situation of past, but continues to be relevant. 

Still, many thanks to Josh (and the respondent who recommended getting Google alerts with the search word "Russia") for their helpful suggestions. I am sure I will be using the sources they are recommending. But I'm hoping there might be something more targeted and focused for my purposes.

Dave Graber

--- On Mon, 10/11/10, Josh Wilson <jwilson at SRAS.ORG> wrote:

> From: Josh Wilson <jwilson at SRAS.ORG>
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] News Source for Students?
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Date: Monday, October 11, 2010, 3:32 PM
> I think you are probably not looking
> for email alerts, actually - but rather
> something more along the lines of social media. 
> 
> You might check out our FB page - covers only Russia really
> with a little
> Ukraine, Belarus, and Central Asia thrown in sometimes. 
> http://www.facebook.com/SRASFB 
> 
> For email stuff, our monthly newsletter is good as well -
> although they can
> get most of the content on the FB page too - and in a more
> sporadic format
> so as to space it out and not overwhelm (as our newsletter
> can do
> sometimes). Our last two: 
> http://www.sras.org/newsletter (Race in Russia)
> http://www.sras.org/newsletter_october_2010
> (Translation and Central Asia) 
> 
> For video - there is a great series out there run by Tsar
> Podcast on YouTube
> (which has email update option).
> http://www.youtube.com/user/tkirby3679 
> 
> There are also a few other online publications/blogs that
> are more
> pop-culture (and sometimes more myth than fact) than
> anything else, but
> still a lot of fun. 
> www.englishrussia.com/
> http://bearsandvodka.com/
> 
> You might also point them at this: http://www.sras.org/library Which has
> resources for just about anything you might want to find
> out, including a
> lot of new sources. 
> 
> If your students have specific interests, maybe let us know
> - there are
> decent English-language resources out there for just about
> any topic (though
> granted, they more are serious - but if you can find
> something that they
> really like, say military concerns, than a very focused but
> more serious
> resource might be just what that particular student
> needs).
> 
> Best, 
> 
> Josh Wilson
> Assistant Director
> The School of Russian and Asian Studies
> Editor in Chief
> Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
> SRAS.org 
> jwilson at sras.org
>  
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and
> Literatures list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu]
> On Behalf Of David Graber
> Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 12:01 AM
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Subject: [SEELANGS] News Source for Students?
> 
> I would like to be able to sign my students up for a short
> digest or email
> alerts on Russia and Eastern Europe. Ideally, the alerts
> would be aimed at
> undergrads with little to no knowledge of Russia and
> Eastern Europe, with
> sufficient background on the issues, focused on
> cultural/historical trends
> and developments, and short and clever enough so that they
> would pique the
> students' curiosity and foil the students' natural
> inclination to simply
> delete them and move on. Videos would work as well.
> 
> I realize that the odds are against such a service
> existing, but I thought
> I'd try the list before attempting to create something like
> this myself.
> 
> Dave Graber
> University of North Carolina at Wilmington
> 
> 
> 
>       
> 
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