COMM 280:Theorizing Communication

Spring 2009

Erika Molloseau Pryor

Austin Pevler x6620

wakingupinnewsamerica.jpg

Robert Heinecken, Waking Up in News America (1984). Image courtesy of artSTOR.




Finding Articles:

Databases
Our databases can help you find relevant journal articles.  If the full text is not available online, simply use CONSORT to check our catalog for the journal title. If you still can't find it, try using the Interlibrary Loan Request Form to have a copy of the article delivered to you at the circulation desk.

Communication Databases:

  • ComAbstracts
    Contains abstracts of articles published in the primary professional literature of the communication field. Abstracts may be searched by word, phrase, or author. The database is updated at intervals throughout the year with both older and newer materials.
  • Communication and Mass Media Complete(EBSCO)
    Contains coverage of 400 titles, 200 of which are available full text.

Other Useful Databases:

  • JSTOR
    Contains full text journal back issues covering a variety of subject areas.
  • Project MUSE
    Online archive of 300 high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from 60 scholarly publishers
  • Academic Search Complete
    Our most comprehensive database. Academic Search Complete includes a mixture of full text and citations for a variety of subject areas.

Selected Web Resources

  • Theory - Resources on Communication Theorists, Theories, and Fields

Creating Searches:

  • KEYWORD searches the entire entry.
    Use this type of search to combine several terms into one search,
    For Example:
    KEYWORD Searching Options:
    AND (fewer results)
    ex. Communication AND "Popular Culture"
    OR(expanded results)
    ex. Rhetoric or Speech
    NOT (eliminates words)
    ex. "Mass Media" NOT Television
    * truncation symbol to find results that include keyword variants
    ex. Rhetoric*
    "quotation marks" to search a phrase
    ex. "video game*"
    (parentheses) to make one portion of search string operate together
    ex. (speech or rhetoric) and theory
  • SUBJECT searches the subject field
    Use this type of search to look for
    • A Person's Name (Ex. Barthes, Roland)
    • A Concept or Term (Ex. Information Theory)

For a lesson on search techniques, see the 5 Colleges of Ohio Research Tutorial.