Library Guides: Political Science: News and Popular Sources

Political Magazines

Political magazines are a good place to get background information, as they are intended for a wide audience and don't necessary assume that their readers have lots of background knowledge. Unlike peer-reviewed research journals, however, political magazines present topics more passionately and partisanly, often with an explicit conservative or liberal bias, so it is even more important to read them with a critical eye.

News, Policy & Politics Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Magazine coverage from the early 20th century until now, from magazines with a political focus. Publications include Newsweek, In These Times, Europe, New Internationalist, and NATO Review.
Political Science Database This link opens in a new window
To find political magazines, simply limit your results to the source type "Magazines".

News Sources

Popular press resources such as newspapers and magazines are expert but non-scholarly sources that report basic facts and offer opinions. One benefit of these sources is that they are printed shortly after an event, but they do not reach the level of analysis necessary for scholarly work. These resources will provide background information or context. They will also assist in identifying key themes, participants, and events.

Contemporary News Sources

Access World News Research Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text information and perspectives from thousands of U.S. and international news sources, each with its own distinctive focus, offering diverse viewpoints on local, regional and global issues. Date coverage varies with individual newspaper.
Factiva This link opens in a new window
Newspaper articles from major international newspapers, including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Wall Street Journal.
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Find international and national news coverage, including the ability to limit by particular countries of publication.
Newspaper source plus This link opens in a new window
Especially useful for finding regional coverage; for example, includes the South Bend Tribune.

-- Other Collections / Aggregators

McClatchy-Tribune collection This link opens in a new window
Includes a 90-day archive of newspapers from the McClatchy-Tribune wire service. The data is updated daily.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Full text articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic, minority and native press in the U.S.
Television news archive, Vanderbilt University This link opens in a new window
Searchable archive of abstracts of news broadcasts from 1968 to present (ABC, CBS, NBC), 1995 to present (CNN), selected content from PBS and FOX News. Selected online video content from CNN and NBC viewable with RealPlayer. Descriptive summaries of the Vanderbilt University collection of network television news programs and other news-related programming collected in its archive since August 5, 1968. Loan copies of videotapes in 3/4 inch U-matic & 1/2 inch VHS. format are available for a fee from the Archive.

AllAfrica
AllAfrica aggregates, produces and distributes 800 news and information items daily from over 150 African news organizations and its own reporters to an African and global public.

World news connection This link opens in a new window
Provides English translations of news sources prepared by the U.S. government from around the world. Successor to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).

Recent Historical News Sources

Keesing's world news archive This link opens in a new window
Provides access to archive of original, accurate and objective news articles providing digestible but detailed summaries of world events, drawn from a wide range of press and other sources in a variety of languages. Digitized version of Keesing's contemporary archives, 1931-1986, and Keesing's record of world events, 1987-
Proquest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
America's historical newspapers This link opens in a new window
A growing collection allows users to search more than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers published between 1690 and 1998 [and beyond], including titles from all 50 states. Created by Readex through partnerships with the American Antiquarian Society, Library of Congress, Wisconsin Historical Society and others.
Paper of record This link opens in a new window
Searchable historical archive from PaperofRecord.com of full-page newspaper images created from newspaper collections on microfilm, preserving the original format of the paper. Many titles from Canada and Mexico. Usage info: 3-5 seats
Irish newspaper archive This link opens in a new window
Searchable and browseable database of Irish newspapers, with both historical and current content.
Times digital archive, 1785-1985 (London) This link opens in a new window
Searchable database of full-text and full-image articles from the Times of London for the years 1785-1985. Digital reproduction, cover to cover, of the paper in PDF files. Includes advertisements, illustrations, and photos.

Historical Newspapers

Historical Newspapers (Digital)

World

Proquest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Paper of record This link opens in a new window
Searchable historical archive from PaperofRecord.com of full-page newspaper images created from newspaper collections on microfilm, preserving the original format of the paper. Many titles from Canada and Mexico. Usage info: 3-5 seats

World Newspaper Archive
Historical newspapers from around the globe.

United States

Accessible archives This link opens in a new window
Provides selected text from newspaper collections: Pennsylvania gazette (1728-1800); The Civil War: a newspaper perspective (Nov. 1860-Apr. 1865); African American newspapers: the 19th century; The Liberator (1831-1865); The Virginia Gazette (1736-1780), and others. This is a growing collection.
America's historical newspapers This link opens in a new window
A growing collection allows users to search more than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers published between 1690 and 1998 [and beyond], including titles from all 50 states. Created by Readex through partnerships with the American Antiquarian Society, Library of Congress, Wisconsin Historical Society and others.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers
The Library of Congress's portal, for newspapers from 1789 through 1922.

19th century U.S. newspapers This link opens in a new window
19th Century U.S. Newspapers provides access to primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life, among other subjects.

Africa

African newspapers, 1800-1922 (from World Newspaper Archive with CRL) This link opens in a new window
Searchable collection of historical African newspapers. Includes dozens of newspapers published between 1800 and 1922 in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Britain

Nineteenth Century British Library Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text of newspapers specially selected by the British Library to best represent nineteenth-century Britain. Includes national and regional newspapers, as well as newspapers from established country or university towns.
17th and 18th century Burney Collection newspapers This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text access to the British Library's collection of the newspapers, pamphlets, and books gathered by Reverend Charles Burney (1757-1817)--the largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media. Includes more than 1,200 titles.
Times digital archive, 1785-1985 (London) This link opens in a new window
Searchable database of full-text and full-image articles from the Times of London for the years 1785-1985. Digital reproduction, cover to cover, of the paper in PDF files. Includes advertisements, illustrations, and photos.

Caribbean

Caribbean Newspapers. Series 1 (1718-1876) This link opens in a new window
Contains 66 newspaper titles from 22 islands between 1718-1876.

China

Shen Bao (1872-1949) This link opens in a new window
Shen Bao 申報 (1872-1949), known in English as Shanghai News, was one of the first modern Chinese newspapers. The Shen Bao Digital Archive includes a complete run of this newspaper--256,000 issues. It is full-text searchable, and contains scanned images of original newspaper pages.

Ireland

Irish newspaper archive This link opens in a new window
Searchable and browseable database of Irish newspapers, with both historical and current content.

Latin America

Latin American newspapers Series 1 & 2 This link opens in a new window
Searchable collection of historical Latin American newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th century in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Venezuela.

South Asia

South Asian newspapers (from World Newspaper Archive with CRL) This link opens in a new window
Searchable collection of a select group of South Asian newspapers (published between 1864 and 1922) featuring English-, Gujarati- and Bengali-language papers published in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Historical Newspapers (Microfilm)

Center for Research Libraries catalog This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to over 500,000 bibliographic records representing CRL's scholarly research resources.
Keesing's world news archive This link opens in a new window
Provides access to archive of original, accurate and objective news articles providing digestible but detailed summaries of world events, drawn from a wide range of press and other sources in a variety of languages. Digitized version of Keesing's contemporary archives, 1931-1986, and Keesing's record of world events, 1987-
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) daily reports This link opens in a new window
"Created by the U.S. intelligence community to benefit policy makers and analysts, FBIS Daily Reports offer foreign views and perspectives on historical events from thousands of monitored broadcasts and publications. Translated into English from more than 50 languages - from Arabic to Swahili - these comprehensive media reports from around the globe include news, interviews, speeches and editorial commentary."--Product description.