COMM:5200 Introduction to Research and Teaching
Guide content supports the teaching and research goals of multiple departments on campus. Content represents a non-exhaustive selection of essential resources and tools for engaging a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints.
Finding Popular Press Articles
There are a few ways to find popular press articles:
- Search InfoHawk+ and our popular press databases, listed at the right. Use quotation marks around specific phrases.
- Limit your search results to Magazines, if that option is available.
- Consult the references in a scholarly article on your topic. Writers will often utilize both scholarly and popular articles.
- Look at Wikipedia. No, seriously. Scroll to the bottom of the entry on your topic and look at the references. Some are likely to be from popular press sources.
- If you get stuck and can't find anything, it's okay to try a search engine like Google. Look at the URL's to verify that the results are from published media but you may be able to find articles this way. URL addresses that include names like www.newyorker.com or www.hollywoodreporter.com or www.newsweek.com, for example, would all be popular press sites.
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America's News Magazines This link opens in a new windowCoverage of U.S. and international news, business, lifestyle, entertainment, sports, and science and technology from 26 familiar magazines.
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Academic Search Elite This link opens in a new windowThis multi-disciplinary database offers full text for nearly 2,000 scholarly journals, including more than 1,500 peer-reviewed titles. Covering virtually every area of academic study, Academic Search Elite offers full text information dating as far back as 1985. This database is updated on a daily basis.
Differences Between Popular and Academic Resources
| Popular (Non-Scholarly) | Academic (Scholarly) | |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Journalist, layperson, or sometimes unknown | Expert (scholar, professor, etc.) in field being discussed |
| Citations | Few or no references/citations available | Includes citations and/or bibliography in certain styles such as MLA, APA, and Chicago (to view citation style guidelines, click on their respective names) |
|
Editing |
Reviewed by people at the publisher |
Reviewed by editorial board of outside scholars (peer review) |
|
Style |
Written for the average reader
|
Written for experts, uses subject-specific jargon, shows research |
| Audience | General public, people in stores/online | Scholars and researchers in the field |
| Advertising | Many ads, often in color | Few or none; if there are any, they are for other scholarly materials |
| Look | Eye-catching/interesting design, many pictures, color | Plain, utilitarian, black and white, tables and charts |
| Contents | Current events, general interest | Specialized research topics only |
| Sample Titles | The New Yorker, The Washington Post, National Geographic | Harvard Educational Review, Journal of Environmental Law |
| Sample Article |
"The Needless Complexity of Academic Writing" - The Atlantic, "Iowa City to launch a year of temporary sculpture installations" - The Daily Iowan |