Newswriting

October 9, 2007

Shirley Knight                                                                      Regina Clark, Professor

sknight@ramapo.edu, L-308, x7315                                   COMM 208-03

 

I. The George T. Potter Library Homepage

  • Provides access to the catalog (OPAC), databases, course reserves, interlibrary loan forms, and more.

 

II. Electronic Resources

Lexis-Nexis: Academic
Covers journal and newspaper articles on top news, general news topics, news transcripts, legal news, market news, general medicine, health topics and much, much more.
See Also:  
America's Newspapers

Each newspaper or wire service provides unique coverage of current and historical events about local and regional news, including information about cultural activities, the people in the community and more.

Ethnic NewsWatch        
A full-text database of newspapers and journal articles of the ethnic minority and native press.
Proquest Newspapers
Provides full-text access to the New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and the Wall Street Journal.

Scholarly/Peer Reviewed/Refereed articles have been reviewed by a selected panel of experts in the discipline covered by that journal. Many of the databases allow you to limit your search to these articles.

 

III.  Journal Finder and Interlibrary Loan

  • Journal Finder:indicates whether full-text articles in the George T. Potter Library  are in print, microform, or through a full-text database. This feature also appears in many of our databases.
  • Interlibrary Loan: allows students to borrow a book or article that the
  • George T. Potter library does not own. There is a link from the Journal Finder page.
 
Both of these links can be found under QUICK LINKS on the library's homepage.
 

Tips

 
  1. Switch to the Advanced Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results.
  2. Use Boolean Operators--AND, OR, NOT and Quotation Marks when running a search. For Example: "investigative reporting" and war
  3. Always check your Spelling if the database results are zero.

      4.  Use the Subject Terms or Thesaurus link, if available, to find the best terms to use in a database.

 

IV.  Web Sources

  • Use the following Subject Resources under Newspapers and Electronic Media to find supplemental information on news.

              

  • ABYZ Newslinks
  • BBC Education World
  • Internews
  • News Directory
  • Newspapers Online
  • The Polynter Institute

 

V. Other Web Site

 

 V. Reference Material

 

  • The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).
  • Suggested materials for your projects:

General Sources

Call Number

Merrian-Webster Online
Online Reference Shelf
Acronyms, Abbreviations and Symbols
Online Reference Shelf
The Quotations Page
Online Reference Shelf
CIA  World Fact Book
Online Reference Shelf
New Patridge Dictionary of Slang: unconventional english
Ref  PE 3721 .P3 2006
Handbook of Interview Research
Ref  H 61.28 .H36
Newswriting Sources
  
World Press Encyclopedia: a survey of press systems worldwide
Ref PN 4728 .Q53

Dictionary of Media & Communication Studies

  
Ref  P 87.5 .W38
Visual Journalism: a guide for new media professionals
Ref  PN 4784 .E5 H364
Broadcast News Handbook
Ref  PN 4783 .K35
Broadcast News Writing Stylebook
Ref  PN 4784 .B75 P36

Handbook of Interview Research

Ref  H 61.28 .H36
Bowker's News Media Directory
Ref  PN 4875 .B786
Working Press of the Nation
Ref  Z6951 .N6

 

                   

 VI. Finding Books at the Potter Library

  • Catalog: use this to find books, periodical titles (NOT articles), government documents, serve items, music,and movies owned by the Library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.
  • Use the Basic Search to find material using Keywords
    • For example: search for "newsediting" or   "visual media" to locate a broad range of materials the library has on these keywords.
    • Use quotation marks around a multi-word phrase so that the catalog system will treat it as a single word
    • Use personal names if you know the name of a journalist. For example, Cronkite, Walter
    • When you find an appropriate title, click on the Subjects etc. tab located at the top of a catalog record to see which Library of Congress subject headings are discussed in that particular book/DVD/periodical to get to more titles that deal with that subject

                                                                                   OR

  • Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature if you know the relevant Library of Congress Suubject Heading
    for example:

 

                                                                     

Subject Headings
  • Authorship
  • Broadcast Journalism - United States
  • Government and the Press--United States
  • Investigative Reporting
  • Journalism
  • Press and Politics--United States
  • Sensationalism in Journalism--United States
  • Television Broadcasting News- United States
  • War--Press Coverage--United States

 

Tips

    1. Start with broad searches. It is much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
    2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Subjects etc. tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
    3. You can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

 

VII.  Bibliography

  • Use Evaluating Websites to determine if the site is authoritative enough to use in your paper.
 

Need more help? Visit or call the Reference Desk: 201.684.7574

Course Reserve: need either Ramapo ID (R#) or bar code (provided by the library)

Use QandA NJ: a 24/7 virtual chat with a reference librarian.
 
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