ANTH 185: Latin America in the News

Hello ANTH 185 Students!

This guide is designed to help you search for, browse, and access newspapers beyond what you get on the open web or your social media apps.

The SCU Library subscribes to many newspapers, so please don't limit yourself to what you can find free on the web.

To make an appointment with your librarian, use the menu at the left to send an email or book an appointment.

Getting Newsy

Paywalls

You're missing out if you are just using Google News, social media, or other free news websites.

Maybe you've discovered you hit a paywall after you read a certain amount of free articles. Maybe you've noticed a skew to the news presented to you on social media. Maybe you don't even know what you're missing!

SCU Library to the Rescue

Get access to this off-limits news info:

• Through databases to which the library subscribes (see the News Databases tab)
• Through an app or on a publisher's website with an SCU-affiliated account (see the WSJ, NYT, and Economist tabs)
• By doing a newspaper title search in the Journals & Magazines tab (maybe you discovered the title by browsing or another discovery method)

Why So Many Databases?

Yes indeed, you have a lot of options presented on this research guide. Why so many databases and resources?

Each database includes full text articles of a discrete collection of newspaper sources, so you will get results from different newspapers using any one database to search. Also, each resource presents a different interface that conditions your experience consuming the news from that website.

Browsing, Searching, and Alerts

As you approach the appointed date of your group presentation, you may want to follow your topic in the news for a couple weeks by setting up an alert, or browse to see what news outlets from your country are talking about, or use targeted keywords to search specifically for your country and topic. All these options are covered in this guide.

Search Strategy

Think carefully about how you are searching in any given database or resource. Think about keywords and ways to target your search to bring back information only relevant to your topic.

Broad search: Argentina

Less broad: "plaza de mayo"

More specific: "plaza de mayo" in Lead/1st paragraph, "demonstrated" anywhere in text

Most specific: "plaza de mayo" in Lead/1st paragraph AND "demonstrated" anywhere in text AND "disappeared" anywhere in text, limited to a specific date range or ranked by date

Most library databases have an advanced search interface where you can implement such a search strategy. Using a news-specific database gives you even more control over your search because you can limit the field to certain typical areas of a news article.

Evaluate Your Results

How relevant is the result to your information need? The core concept of your topic should be mentioned in the first paragraph. If it isn't, move on to a better article. Having trouble finding relevant articles? Make an appointment with your librarian (see profile to left).

Newspapers publish articles, editorials, and letters to the editor, amongst other types of information. The differences between articles, editorials, and letters to the editor as as follows.

Types of Information Published by Newspapers

Including but not limited to:

Articles

Articles are fact-based pieces that are written with the purpose of informing readers of a publication about certain events or topics. They should not be written in such a way that reflects personal bias; however, it's important to review the content of the article and an article's author to discern what biases they may have or express. 

Editorials

Editorials are generally written by a staff member of the publication publishing the piece and reflect the opinions of the publication.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor are generally written by members of the public at large who are not on staff at the publication, or who are writing as a private individual and not in the role of a staff writer. The opinions expressed in these pieces are the opinions of the individual writer or group who submitted the letter, not the publication that has printed the letter.