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Divide the class into groups of four or five and present them with the following questions:

What places in the world do you know about through the various media?

What areas of the world do you not know about?

Why do you think some areas of the world are generally ignored?
Have them compile their responses on the download sheet Where Was the World?

Assessment Tip
Note whether student response to the third question is logical. Consider a class discussion to help strengthen connections or return to this question when students have finished the activity.

With the completed sheets in hand, students will work individually to examine On The Edge of Horror and The making of a general and the Additional Clips The failure of the media in Rwanda and A lack of political will from Witness to Evil: Roméo Dallaire and Rwanda on the CBC Digital Archives website. Students create and complete a T-chart with the headings Accusations of Missed Opportunities (Media/UN) and Media/UN Explanations.

With their T-charts complete, students gather in their groups to share their findings.

Students can, using both worksheets as a basis for their information, identify parts of the world that they are not familiar with due to media non-interest. They can write to a local, nationally owned media station to ask why this part of the world receives so little media attention in Canada.