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.
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!
Get access to this off-limits news info:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Including but not limited to:
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 are generally written by a staff member of the publication publishing the piece and reflect the opinions of the publication.
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.