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Bringing the World to the Classroom: Using FBIS Reports in the Int'l Politics Course

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2020

John Merrill
John Merrill*
Affiliation:
Lafayette College
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Extract

Many recent reports have voiced alarm at the decline of international and area studies in the United States. Symptomatic of this problem is the disturbing fact that only 15 percent of American high school students study a foreign language. This inadequate background is also apparent among students in introductory international politics courses. Few have traveled or lived overseas. Most have only a nodding acquaintance with foreign opinion garnered secondhand from newspapers and news weeklies — and not all can be supposed even to read these regularly. In this situation, the results obtained by assigning research papers are likely to be disappointing: many students simply lack the background to do a credible job. They feel put upon by the paper, postpone it until the last minute, and then cobble together a hasty paraphrase of a few stories and articles.

Type
International Studies
Information
News for Teachers of Political Science , Volume 43 , Fall 1984 , pp. 1 - 3
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1984

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References

Notes: Using FBIS Reports

1. Commission on International Education, American Council on Education, “What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us,” quoted in The Morning Call, Allenton, PA, January 23, 1984; See also The President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, “Strength Through Wisdom: A Critique of U.S. Capability,” November 1979.

2. A glance at Piano, Jack. and Olton's, RoyInternational Relations Dictionary(ABC-Clio, 1982Google Scholar) will indicate the potential magnitude of this task.

3. William Rogers, “The New York Times Clipping Thesis,” two page handout distributed by The New York Times.

4. Cline, Ray S., The CIA: Reality vs. Myth, Acropolis Books, 1982, p. 32.Google Scholar

5. Bruce Morton, “JPRS and FBIS Translations: Polycentrism at the Reference Desk,“ Reference Services Review, Spring 1983, pp.99-110, gives an excellent description of the reports, their breadth of coverage and usefulness.

6. Richard M. Brown, “CIA Perversion of Domestic News,” USA Today, September 1979, pp. 33-34.

7. New York Times, March 19, 1980.

8. The NewsBank FBIS Indexes are available for $175 each for the eight area editions of the reports from NewsBank, Inc., 58 Pine Street, New Canaan, Connecticut.

9. Sachs, Moshe Y., ed., Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, 5 vols., John Wiley and Sons, 1984Google Scholar; Political Handbook of the World, Banks, Arthur S. and Overstreet, William, eds., McGraw-Hill, 1981Google Scholar; The World Press Encyclopedia, Kurian, George T., ed., Facts on File, 1982.Google Scholar