Library Guides: Journalism: Background Information

Overview of Journalism

Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that impacts society to at least some degree. The word applies to the occupation (professional or not), the methods of gathering information, and the organizing literary styles. Journalistic media include: print, television, radio, Internet, and, in the past, newsreels.

Other Related Guides

Social Sciences Datasets and Statistics
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News and Popular Press

Regional business news This link opens in a new window
Provides comprehensive full text coverage of regional business publications from all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States.
CQ researcher This link opens in a new window
Covers the most current and controversial issues of the day with summaries, pros and cons, bibliographies and more, with a United States focus. Includes news covered in print issues of: Editorial research reports (1924-1986), Congressional quarterly's editorial research reports (1987-1991) and CQ researcher (1991-).
Factiva This link opens in a new window
Successor to Dow Jones News Service, Factiva provides access to global news and business information, including newspapers, same-day newswires, company reports, and media programs. Usage info: Licensed for 4 simultaneous users. Access info: Historically Factiva only worked with IE version 5 or higher. Since then, several other browser options have been added.

Global Sports Matter
GlobalSport Matters is a multimedia content hub that delivers information on issues affecting sport. It is a joint initiative between Arizona State University’s Global Sport Institute and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

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-
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni offers print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs, as well as local, regional, national and international newspapers with deep archives.

New America Media
New America Media (NAM) is a national collaboration and advocate of 3,000 ethnic news organizations. Founded by the nonprofit Pacific News Service in 1996, NAM is is dedicated to bringing the voices of the marginalized--ethnic minorities, immigrants, young people, elderly--into the national discourse.

Newspaper source plus This link opens in a new window
Provides full text for more than 40 national (U.S.) and international newspapers, including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The Times (London), The Toronto Star, etc. Selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers, including The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Miami Herald, The New York Daily News, etc. Full text television and radio news transcripts are also provided.
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). Current only through 2013.

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Guides

Battleground: The Media
It examines the most significant of the topics currently being debated in today's media system. It offers background, definitions, notable programs, significant media events and their historical significance, and important future trends.

CQ Press Political reference suite of online editions This link opens in a new window
Cross-searchable, full-text access to reference titles on government and politics. Includes: Congress and the Nation, Encyclopedia of Political Science, Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History, Guide to Congress, Guide to Political Campaigns in America, Guide to the Presidency, Guide to U.S. Elections, Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court, Historic Documents Series, Political Handbook of the World, [CQ's] Politics in America, Supreme Court Yearbook, Vital Statistics on American Politics, and Washington Information Directory.

Dictionary of Media and Communication
The Dictionary of Media and Communication is an authoritative and wide-ranging A-Z providing over 2,200 entries on terms used in media and communication, from concepts and theories to technical terms, across subject areas that include advertising, digital culture, journalism, new media, radio studies, and telecommunications. It also covers relevant terminology from related disciplines such as literary theory, semiotics, cultural studies, and philosophy.
Encyclopedia of American Journalism
It explores the distinctions found in print media, radio, television, and the internet. It documents the role of these different forms of journalism in the formation of America's understanding and reaction to political campaigns, war, peace, protest, slavery, consumer rights, civil rights, immigration, unionism, feminism, environmentalism, globalization, and more.
Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics
It explores how the rise of social media is altering politics both in the United States and in key moments, movement, and places around the world. Its scope encompasses the disruptive technologies and activities that are changing basic patterns in American politics.
Media Law Handbook
Published by the Bureau of International Information Programs in the US Department of State.

Online Resources about Journalism

FAIR
A national media watch group that focuses on strengthening the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press. They also scrutinize media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints.
Media Cloud
Media Cloud is a joint project by the MIT Center for Civic Media and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. They track millions of stories published online and offer a suite of tools that allows researchers to track how stories and ideas spread through media.
On the Media
This radio series, produced by WNYC, investigates how the media shapes our worldview.
Pew Research Center's Journalism and Media site
assesses the state of news and information in a changing society
State of the News Media
The Pew Research Center's annual report on audience and economic indicators in the news media in the United States. Past reports are available.

Biography

American national biography This link opens in a new window
A standard biographical resource for more than 17,000 notable people in American history.
Ancestry library edition This link opens in a new window
Searchable genealogical information on billions of names across thousands of census and related collections.
Biography and genealogy master index This link opens in a new window
Indexes hundreds of biographical sources covering individuals, living and dead, from every field of activity worldwide.
Biography Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Offers a collection of full-text biographies, including the complete run of Biography Today and Biography.
Complete dictionary of scientific biography This link opens in a new window
This reference source contains biographies of mathematicians and natural scientists from all countries and from all historical periods. It presents an accurate and reliable narrative of the development of science, not as a mere accumulation of technical information but as the collective accomplishment that has ordered our understanding of nature.
Contemporary Hispanic Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographies of Latinos and Latinas in the international Hispanic community.

Dictionary of Political Biography
It covers all the major figures in world politics of the twentieth century.

Oxford dictionary of national biography This link opens in a new window
The classic, authoritative biographical source for British history. Usage info: Licensed for 3 simultaneous users.

Who's Who in the Twentieth Century
It provides biographies of men and women from different countries and cultures who have contributed to the thought as well as the action of the twentieth century.

Who's who on the web This link opens in a new window
Biographies of over a million people of note, world wide. All Marquis' Who's Who biographies published since 1985 are included.

World's Who's Who
It offers current biographical information on about 70,000 of the most influential men and women in all fields.

Statistics and Polling Data

Polling Data

Pew Research Center
Nonpartisan think tank conducting public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.

Polling the Nations This link opens in a new window
More than 12,000 national, state, local and special surveys, conducted by 700 polling organizations in the United States and 70 other countries from 1986 through the present. Usage info: Licensed for 4 simultaneous users.

Rasmussen Reports
Provides public opinion polling information.

Roper iPoll This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive, up-to-date source for US nationwide public opinion. A full-text retrieval system, the iPoll online database is organized at the question level, providing the tools to sift through nearly a half million questions asked on national public opinion surveys, 1935 to present. Surveys archived in the Roper Catalog were originally gathered by academic, commercial and media survey organizations such as Gallup Organization, Harris Interactive, Pew Research Associates, and many more.

Other Data Resources

CQ Press Political reference suite of online editions This link opens in a new window
Cross-searchable, full-text access to reference titles on government and politics. Includes: Congress and the Nation, Encyclopedia of Political Science, Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History, Guide to Congress, Guide to Political Campaigns in America, Guide to the Presidency, Guide to U.S. Elections, Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court, Historic Documents Series, Political Handbook of the World, [CQ's] Politics in America, Supreme Court Yearbook, Vital Statistics on American Politics, and Washington Information Directory.

Economics Data Sources
From the Economics libguide.
Datasets and Statistics