150126 VU Current Developments in Northeast Asia (2) (2017S)

Knowledge of any East Asian language is not required.
Each student will be assigned one newspaper or similar source.
In preparation of each unit, students will be asked to read related articles in the assigned source and to prepare a short informal presentation of their contents, identifying at least three major themes and knowing some of their background. The written notes for each of the sessions must be posted on Moodle after the class in order to be accessible to the other students. At the end of the semester, each student will be asked to submit an essay (4,000 words) summarizing the results of his/her media analysis. The editorial deadline for the contents of these essays is June 11, 2017.
Students’ participation in discussion is an integral part of this course. Regular participation is thus mandatory. The following rules apply: The final grade remains unchanged in the case of up to three absences. If you are absent for up to 4 times, the final grade will be reduced by one full grade. If you are absent for up to 5 times, the final grade will be reduced by two full grades, and so forth.
Your in-class activity will be taken note of. This concerns the presentation of the last week’s main events from your new source as well as your participation in the discussion of other presentations. Please note that you will typically not be explicitly asked to present; this is not high-school. It is up to you to share your results and insights.
Twice during the semester, we will focus on one particular event or issue and discuss it more deeply. For that purpose, the class will be divided into four teams. Each time, two of the teams will present. They will have to select one topic/issue that they like to talk about and use input from their respective news source to collect empirical information. This will be supplemented by background research.
The final grade will be calculated as follows:
-- Student’s in-class presentations (including timely submission of notes to Moodle): 40%
-- Interim summary (team presentation): 30%
-- Final essay: 30%
Please note: Each of these components counts as a minimal requirement (“Mindestanforderung”) and must thus be passed in order to pass the whole course.