News Portfolio Project



Due Date: ________________________

News Portfolio Project

As part of our unit on World War II, we will be looking at several newspaper and magazine articles over the next few weeks. For this project you will be reading the newspaper or a news-oriented and collecting articles that relate to the themes we will be investigating.

Over the next few weeks, you will need to read a newspaper or news magazine several times a week and look for articles that somehow relate to World War II. Focus on 1-2 themes or over-arching concepts that was prevalent during the war and that is still an issue today. The theme/concept can be about anything from stereotypes, genocide, to hate crimes to scape-goating to prejudice and discrimination, etc. Collect a series of newspaper articles (with varying dates, i.e. not all collected the weekend before it’s due) that relate to your chosen theme and that can be connected to WWII. For example, maybe you want to write your paper on the rise of new fascist and totalitarian states (Russia, Italy, N. Korea, etc.) and how these states pose a threat to world peace and security and why. Then you would look for articles that discuss events in the world TODAY that discuss efforts by totalitarian regimes to disrupt global security and peace, like for instance the murder of a Saudio Arabian journalist by the Saudi Prince, or Russia attempting to interfere in the 2020 US presidential election. If you have a question about whether an article fits this unit, show it to me and I’ll help you figure it out. The idea is to start keeping track of what’s happening in the world around you and to start making connections between things that happened in the past and what is going on currently.

• Find a relevant article that fits with your chosen concept from a newspaper or news magazine.

• Cut/print it out

• Glue or tape it to a piece of notebook paper

• Cite the source (that means write down the name of the newspaper or magazine and the date the article appeared)

• Write a one to two paragraph summary of the article (this can be done on the back of the notebook paper if the article takes up the whole front page)

• Continue collecting articles until you have at least 8 articles for the portfolio

• Just before you turn in the portfolio, you will need to write a two to three page paper about how the articles you have collected fit together and about what you have learned in the process of collecting them. I will give you more details about this when we get closer to the due date.

Possible Concepts

• Genocide

• Totalitarian or fascist regimes

• Weapons of mass destruction

• Political corruption

• Ethnic cleansing

• Discrimination

• Voting rights

• Censorship

• Four Freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, freedom from want

• Violent Conflicts

• Unethical scientific research

• Stereotypes

• Human trafficking

• Anything you can think of that relates to themes and concepts that were visible during WWI

Collect a minimum total of 8 articles for the portfolio.

You will have 4 weeks to complete the portfolio, so if you read the paper/news magaizines every day, you will definitely be able to find plenty of articles for the project. But if you leave the project until the last minute, you may have a very difficult time finishing on time.

Newspapers you might look through: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The San Diego Union Tribune, The LA Times, The Orange County Register

Magazines you might look through: Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Vibe.

News Portfolio Reflection Paper

After collecting the newspaper articles you will use them to write an analytical paper that makes connections with the events of World War II and current events from your articles as it relates to your chosen theme/concept. Additionally, you will reflect on the process of collecting the articles and the relevance of the past to current events.

• You analytical paper must be a minimum of 2-3 pages MLA Format

o Paper is structured like an essay with an introduction, a thesis (in introduction), body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

o Use evidence and quotes from the collected articles and from the unit to highlight the connections you made and to proof your thesis (aka how the articles connect to you chosen theme/concept in WWII)

o Include a works cited of your articles and sources

• You paper must address the following:

o Your chosen theme/concept and how it relates to WWII

o How do the articles connect to the events/concepts/themes present in learning about WWII?

▪ Why do you think they connect?

• Other questions you can consider in your paper:

o How do you relate to the articles?

o What have you learned about the relevance of the past to current events?

o What have you learned about WWII and it’s impact on the world today as a result of this portfolio project?

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