Waggoner Library: COM 3010: Theories of Communication: Finding Journal Articles

Databases

A great place to start your search for journal articles is in Discovery, the library catalog. Discovery can be accessed using the search box on the library homepage.

Watch the brief video below to learn more about how to locate articles in Discovery. (4:24)

Communications and Mass Media This link opens in a new window
This collection provides current information from more than 100 journals focused on all aspects of the communications field including technology applications.
APA PsycArticles® This link opens in a new window
PsycArticles covers journals published by APA, the Canadian Psychological Association, Hogrefe Publishing Group, and APA's Educational Publishing Foundation. These journals are available in full text.
Gale In Context: Global Issues This link opens in a new window
Empowers users with the tools they need to understand today’s world issues from a global perspective. Computer literacy and the digital divide are a couple topics addressed on a global scale.
Nexis Uni™ This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information, including hundreds of U.S. and foreign newspapers, legal and business publications, wire services, broadcast media transcripts, and trade/news magazines. Covers 1980 - present
Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.
Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers the latest concepts, trends, opinions, theories, and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences.

Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
A multi-disciplinary database of over 10,000 academic journals, newspapers, magazines, reports, and books. Also provides access to current Associated Press video content back to 1930. Scholarly content covers a broad range of important areas of academic study, including biology, food science, landscape architecture, urban planning, engineering, animal science, law, and general sciences.
Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database covering many subjects with content from journal articles, newspaper resources, magazines, and audio & video files.

Newspaper Sources research guide
Newspapers and newswire resources. Local, national and international papers represented.

Database Search Tips

New to searching in a library database? This guide from the University of Illinois will be very useful!

In the meantime, here are a few basic tips to get you started.

Searching a library database is different than searching Google. You don't want to type in "Peggy vs. Joan - two types of feminism in Mad Men"
Instead, break down those concepts, and maybe think about some broader or narrower aspects of your topic:
- Mad Men
- Peggy Olson
- Joan Holloway
- feminism
- working women
- television program
- pop culture
Then, use the Advanced Search option in the database to put the desired term in its own box (or link the terms with AND). Either option streamlines your search and helps the database know what you need! You don't need to always search with all your keywords--two to three usually works great (e.g., Mad Men AND feminism).
Have a concept, story title, etc. that is more than one word? Use quotation marks to search them together, like "Mad Men."
Keywords not working? Try thesaurus.com for other suggestions!