Research Help: COMM 1105: Intro to Communication and Media Studies (Lorencova): Getting Started

Research Steps

Your Topic

Need background information or help developing your topic? Check out:

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
An easy-to-use database providing dictionary and encyclopedia entries on subjects in all academic disciplines; a scholarly alternative to Wikipedia. Provides access to over 1,000 reference books.
Issues And Controversies This link opens in a new window
Up-to-date, in-depth and objective information on the most prominent and hotly debated issues of the day.
Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Addressing current event topics, this database provides topic overviews, pro/con essays, primary source documents, overviews of court cases, statistics, access to newspaper and magazine articles, reference works, podcasts and multimedia tools to help you research social issues.

Reference Resources

Our online reference database CREDO has the full text of a number of resources on media studies:

Writing a Literature Review

One of your assignments is to write a Literature Review. This short overview will show you all the component parts to a Literature Review.

Writing a Literature Review (UC Santa Cruz)

News Media

npr: National Public Radio
In a time of media fragmentation and sound bites, NPR has succeeded by focusing on its core: in-depth, quality news. NPR has evolved from a secondary to an essential news source, with dozens of bureaus around the world and the nation. Drawing on more than 340 news staff (reporters, correspondents, newscasters, editors, producers hosts and bloggers) in the United States and abroad — from Washington, D.C., and New York City, to Beijing and Dakar, we have the capacity to stay on top of breaking news, follow the most critical stories of the day and track complex issues over the long term. (About page).
BBC
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs.
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera, also known as JSC, is a state-funded broadcaster in Doha, Qatar, owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network. The first independent news in the Arab world to provide comprehensive news and live debates.
Reuters
Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV.
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio service CBS. CBS News' broadcasts include the CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning, news magazine programs CBS Sunday Morning, 60 Minutes and 48 Hours, and Sunday morning political affairs program Face the Nation. CBS News Radio produces hourly newscasts for hundreds of radio stations, while CBS also operates a 24-hour news network called CBSN.
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), owned by the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ABC World News Tonight; other programs include morning news-talk show Good Morning America, news magazine series Nightline, Primetime and 20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopolous.
NBC News
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English language commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast.
PBS NewsHour
The PBS NewsHour is an American daily evening television news program that is broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), airing seven nights a week on more than 350 of the public broadcaster's member stations. As the nation's first hour-long nightly news broadcast, the program is known for its in-depth coverage of issues and current events.