Research Guides: Journalism & Public Relations: News Reporting & Ethics

State & National Research Sources

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window Congressional Researcher reports on social issues
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California Legislative Analyst's Office Nonpartisan analyses of state budget and reports on major issues.
Public Policy Institute of California
California Research Bureau
U.S. Research "Think Tanks"

Long Beach Background Resources

List of Long Beach Neighborhood Groups
LBPost
Long Beach Press-Telegram Also in Newsbank database

Statistics and Polling Data

U.S. Census QuickFacts is where you find basic demographic information on a community.
U.S. Census Data Portal Official data portal of the U.S. Census Bureau
U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention: Covid Tracker
USA.gov Provides links to myriad U.S. federal data sources.
FBI Uniform Crime Reports The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program generates reliable statistics for use in law enforcement.
Cal State Statistics Broad range of stats on Cal State students by campus and other variables.
CSULB Statistics
California Quick Facts State level data from the U.S. Census Bureau
California Election Statistics Data from the Office of the California Secretary of State

An effective approach to finding government statistics on a topic is to use the following search in Google:

Statistics YOUR TOPIC site:.gov

For example: statistics crime site:.gov

Other Data Sources:

iPOLL This link opens in a new window U.S. sampling of registered voters on public opinions. Find aggregated question-level data and other survey data only at the national level.
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Statista This link opens in a new window Reports that provide an aggregate of a variety of data, mainly statistics. Search for data by industry, political issue, consumerism, companies or countries. The data reports provide sourcing information.
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Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window A summary of statistics on the United States social, political, and economy. Majority of the data is over time. The data tables provide source information for further research.
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Finding Academic Experts

Most colleges and universities have online databases of faculty experts. This Google search can help:

expert YOUR TOPIC site:.edu

Finding Advocates

Nonprofit organizations that advocate for an issue can be good sources of background and people to interview. But you still need to evaluate their credibility. Check the About section for their mission or their board of directors to see if they have prominent people serving.

Some search strategies:

Google: Type in: expert YOUR TOPIC site:.org OR type in YOUR TOPIC advocacy group
Global Newsstream: Check news articles on the topic and look for people interviewed.
CQ Researcher: Long reports will include a Contacts section with organization names and websites and their perspective

Journalism & Public Relations

State & National Research Sources

Long Beach Background Resources

Statistics and Polling Data

Finding Academic Experts

Finding Advocates

Diverse Sources