by Kai Lengwiler | 14 Mar 2022 | Contest winners, Educators' Catalog, Europe, Health and Wellness, Politics, Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich, Student Posts, Youth Voices
What’s the best way for a country to curb heroin addiction? My nation, Switzerland, offers an example for the world to follow. This video won first prize in News Decoder’s 11th Storytelling Contest. The year is 1985, and Switzerland is faced with one of...
Video is the flavor of the day for both mainstream and social media, but few know how much work goes into a quality product. Kai Lengwiler of Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zurich weaves extensive research, including exclusive interviews, and compelling music and images into his 14-minute video that examines Switzerland’s controversial approach to combating the use of hard drugs. Lengwiler promises that viewers will have a better understanding of drug epidemics and how to fight them after watching the video, and he lives up to his promise.
Exercise: Ask your students to produce a three-minute video exploring an issue of global concern, including excerpts of at least one exclusive interview and rights-free music.
by Susanne Courtney | 11 Mar 2022 | Educators' Catalog, Environment, Politics, Ukraine, World
The Arctic has long been a region of peace. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is jeopardizing cooperation in the vast zone threatened by climate change. An Inuit family in Quinhagak, Alaska, 2015 (Photo by Brian Adams, courtesy of the Inuit Circumpolar Council)...
War in Ukraine has unleashed a tsunami of ink – about geopolitics, military alliances, weaponry, diplomacy, history. A relatively little noticed but hugely important angle is the future of the Arctic, which has eight nations, including two nuclear powers, the United States and Russia, staking a claim to portions of the vast region. Susanne Courtney introduces us to the relatively little known Arctic Council, which is sure to assume more and more importance as global warming opens up new shipping routes and facilitates the extraction of valuable natural resources. It’s never too early to be ahead of the news curve.
Exercise: Ask your students to debate the resolution: “Seven member states of the Arctic Council acted unwisely in boycotting talks with Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine.”
by Jill Moffatt | 8 Mar 2022 | China, Human Rights, Sports, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows
China is spotlighting the Paralympic Games and winning medals. But do its broadcast coverage and athletes’ success mask inequitable rights? China’s athletes parade at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, 4 March 2022. (AP...
by Julian Nundy | 7 Mar 2022 | Asia, Decoders, Educators' Catalog, Europe, Human Rights, Politics, Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the fall of the Soviet Union was a catastrophe. What was the USSR, and what does Putin really want? Russian communist party supporters commemorate the death anniversary of the founder of the former Soviet Union, Vladimir...
It’s next to impossible to fathom why Russia might have invaded Ukraine without understanding the Soviet Union and Vladimir Putin’s attachment to the notion of an empire led by Moscow. Few are better placed than Julian Nundy, whose links to Ukraine go back more than half a century, to explain the complex relationship between Russia and its western neighbor. In his decoder, Nundy takes the reader from the upheaval of the Russian revolution to the collapse of the USSR and, with it, Russia’s loss of buffer states – for Putin, an intolerable affront.
Exercise: Ask your students to choose a revolution – if their country had a revolution, then that should be their focus – and to assess the good that may have come out of it, and the bad.
by Elaine Monaghan | 3 Mar 2022 | Politics, Ukraine, World
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine begs questions that most young people have never asked. Here’s how to make sense of the conflict at the heart of Europe. A woman cries in a house crowded with people seeking shelter from Russian airstrikes, outside the capital...
by Helen Womack | 1 Mar 2022 | Europe, Government, Human Rights, Nationalism, Politics
As leader of Hungary, Viktor Orbán has thumbed his nose at EU values. Elections in April will test whether Hungarians want his “illiberal democracy.” An old tenement block in the Budapest district of Angyalföld, which reflects the split in Hungarian...
by Aralynn Abare McMane | 25 Feb 2022 | Journalism, Media Literacy, Ukraine, Youth Voices
Editors around the world explain how they’re helping kids to understand and cope with the news as Russia invades Ukraine. From News-O-Matic, by a reader named Derin A week before Russia invaded Ukraine, editor Joyce Grant at Canada’s Teaching Kids News conducted...
by Nelson Graves | 25 Feb 2022 | Europe, Politics, Ukraine, World
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens the global order that has spared us world war. In an era of nuclear weapons, our very survival could be at risk. A body of a dead soldier lies on the ground next to Ukrainian Army soldiers in Kyiv, Ukraine, 25 February 2022. (AP...
by News Decoder | 24 Feb 2022 | Politics, Ukraine
We asked News Decoder correspondents why young people should care about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here’s what they said. An Ukrainian child stamps her painted hand on the Ukrainian flag during a protest outside the Russian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon,...
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominates the news. With so much changing so rapidly, it can be difficult to get a big picture view of the context, implications and side effects of the attacks. When you live far away from the conflict, it can be difficult to know why you should care, with all the other problems in the world, and what — and who — to believe.
In this compilation, News Decoder correspondents offer different perspectives to consider about the war in Ukraine and potential consequences around the globe — and even in space. They bring decades of experience covering politics, foreign affairs and conflict — many having been based in Russia and Eastern Europe — to help place the invasion in a larger context. Their commentary provides a launching point for discussion.
Exercise: Ask students what questions they have about Ukraine and how the conflict might have an impact on your country.
by Birgit Kaspar and Alistair Lyon | 21 Feb 2022 | Africa, Europe, Human Rights, Politics
It’s been 60 years since Algeria won freedom. The nation’s former ruler, France, is still struggling with its colonial legacy, national identity and values. Abdelkrim Sid, son of a “harki” who fought for France in Algeria, stands in a derelict...
