Library Research Guide for J2100, News
Web Research
Valuable Web Tools (Think critically when using them!)
- Search Engines: (Google, Yahoo, Bing, MSN, etc.) Use advanced search features whenever possible to narrow your search and limit your hits.
- Google Scholar: On campus, "scholar preferences" are set to the University of Missouri in "library links." This will allow access to resources owned by MU. If your are searching if remotely or off-campus, set the "scholar preferences"/"library links" to University of Missouri.
- Wikipedia: Online social encylopedia with contributions from a broad audience of non-authoritative sources. It's a great place to browse for ideas, but it is not an acceptable source to cite for academic or journalistic writing.
- Twitter/Blogs of journalists - people you trust to get the facts right. Twitter has been characterized as today's "police scanner."
- Computational Search Engines: WolframAlpha - technology platform that accepts free-form input, pulls data from an internal knowledge base composed of multiple data sources to provide an output in many forms.
- New Media Tools helpful to journalists
Evaluate every site before using it as a research source. Keep the following in mind:
- Authority: Who wrote this page? Is it a personal page? Is the author, organization or entity reliable and credible? What is the domain extension? (.gov,.edu,.mil,.org,.com,.net) Do they provide contact information or an "about us" link? You can trace domain registrations at: http://www.internic.net/whois.html where you will find contact information if you wish to investigate further. Use SourceWatch a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy, to check on names behind the news. Use alexa.com to view web traffic statistics, keywords that were used to find the site, etc.
- Content: Is the information relevant? Is it current? Is it accurate? Is there documentation or sources available?
- Purpose: Why was this page created? Who is the audience? Is there an agenda or bias to the information on the page?
Looking for statistics, demographics?
- Ask yourself: Who cares? Who is interested in this information enough to collect it?
- The government collects data on people, industry, education, crime, housing, etc.
- Associations, organizations, institutions collect data for their members.
- Does this organization/association have a bias or a point of view that might affect the validity of the information?
- Develop good information gathering skills.
- Think critically
- Practice searching - using a few focused and effective keywords
- Bookmark or add valuable sites to your "favorites."
- Always ask for assistance if you are stumped.
- J2100 Exercises
- For assistance, contact: Dorothy Carner: carnerd@missouri.edu
Using Library Resources
Finding Books
- Search the online catalog, Merlin: http://laurel.lso.missouri.edu/search~S1
- Choose the “advanced search” function to limit items to the journalism library.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library http://proxy.mul.missouri.edu:2048/login?url=http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/morenetuomcolum?db=GVRL is a great place to search several digital reference books at one time
Finding Articles/News Stories/Photos
- Access online databases for journalism from: http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/search/databases/default.aspx?alpha=A Please notice Journalism Study Guides at the bottom of the database page.
- News databases: http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/newsdatabases.htm
- Print newspapers in the Journalism Library http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/news/print.htm
- Factiva
- Press Display http://proxy.mul.missouri.edu:2048/login?url=http://library.pressdisplay.com
- Associated Press Multimedia Archive
- All databases available: http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/search/databases/default.aspx?alpha=A
- Columbia Missourian: http://www.columbiamissourian.com/
- Columbia Daily Tribune: Before February 2, 2009 - http://archive.showmenews.com/query.asp ; after February 2, 2009 - http://www.columbiatribune.com/search/
- News databases: http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/newsdatabases.htm
Finding People
- Columbia, Missouri city directory F474.C72 A18 Copies in Journalism Reference, Ellis Reference & Columbia Missourian Library (Morgue) – provides local directory information
- Lexis Nexis http://proxy.mul.missouri.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic - Choose “People” tab. Search for biographies of business, government, or other famous people
- Marquis Who’s Who http://proxy.mul.missouri.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.marquiswhoswho.com - Provides access to current biographies of all individuals who appeared in any one of over 20 Who's Who titles.
- Reference USA – invaluable residential and business resource available at Columbia Public Library http://www.dbrl.org/reference/databases.html. It is worth the trip to the library to get a library card and have online access. (250 million residential names and 14 million businesses).
- Snitch.name http://snitch.name
- http://pipl.com/ - Free people search tool
- http://www.yoname.com/ - Search for people across social networks.
Citing Resources- Attribution, citing resources, and avoiding plagiarism is vital to good journalism.
- Working with words: A handbook for media writers and editors. Brooks, Brian S. et al. PN 4774 b726 2006 (Go to Exercise Central for AP Stylehttp://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/apexercises --log on as student and register for grammar/usage practice exercises – cross-referenced in Working with Words.)
- AP Stylebook http://proxy.mul.missouri.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.apstylebook.com/missouri/
- Electronic Style guides: http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/styleguides.htm
- Tips for avoiding plagiarism and from the Poynter Institute http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=9506
- Bedford/St. Martin’s tips for avoiding plagiarism: http://tinyurl.com/m2bl4w