Research Guides: Journalism & Public Relations: JOUR 418

Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Primary Sources Research Guide

Primary Sources Guide

Researching Your Topic

Communication Source This link opens in a new window Communication Source provides articles in areas related to communication and mass media. This database originated with the acquisition and subsequent merging of two popular databases in the fields of communication and mass media studies -- Communication and Mass Media Complete and Communication Abstracts.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database, with more than 5,300 full text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. Features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Updated daily.
America: History and Life This link opens in a new window Provides 60 years of recent U.S. and Canadian historical and cultural scholarship in thousands of scholarly journals, books, review articles, & Ph.D. dissertations. Topics range from prehistoric times to the present.
Ethnic NewsWatch, 1959-present This link opens in a new window Newspaper and periodical articles written by and about various ethnic groups in the United States including Latinos/Hispanic, African/Caribbean, Jewish, Middle Eastern, Native American, Eastern European, and Asian American.Coverage: 1959 to date. Updated monthly.
Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Recent news stories
Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Indexes the last 60 years of “modern history” (historical scope, post 1450 to date) and covers over 2000 scholarly journals, books, and Ph.D. dissertations . Does not cover the U.S. and Canada (use America History & Life)
Historical Los Angeles Times This link opens in a new window Full text, facsimile content of the Los Angeles Times for 1881-1996. Includes complete articles, photographs, advertisements, classified ads, legal notices, comics, editorials, commentary, letters to the editor, sports, radio and television schedules. For more current content, see: Los Angeles Times (1985-current)
Historical New York Times This link opens in a new window Full text facsimile content of the New York Times from 1851 up until the previous three years. Includes all articles, reviews, commentary, literary criticism, comics, obituaries, classifieds, and display ads. More photographs may be viewable using the “full page PDF” viewing option.
Historical Chicago Defender, 1905-1975 This link opens in a new window A full text African American newspaper available from 1905-1975. It is important for historical research on civil rights, segregation, African American migration to the industrial states, anti-lynching legislation, and the modern civil rights movement. The Defender also published the works of African American authors, such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes.
Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980 This link opens in a new window Hundreds of Spanish-language newspaper articles from 1808 to 1980, with some articles also appearing in English.
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NewsBank This link opens in a new window
Press-Telegram, Register, & Sacramento Bee recent stories
Westlaw This link opens in a new window Full-text to federal and state cases, statutes, regulations and administrative codes, as well as international law, law encyclopedias, and law reviews. Business news and company legal tax filing information.
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Archival and Other Sources

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
Journalism History Podcasts
Media History Digital Library
Newsreel Archives More than 4,000 historic news videos from Films on Demand
Television Academy Interviews

Using the Databases

The videos below will walk you how to structure your searches to make them more effective and to find additional resources using citation.

Chicago Style Citations

Quick Guide to Citation Examples

Other Resources

Vanderbilt Television News Archive

Brief abstracts of newscasts, searchable by topic and date going back to 1968. Users associated with a university pay $17.00 per clip loaded on a USB and mailed.

https://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/