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Sociology: Sociology & the Media

Sources for finding the way the media presents social issues, as well as sources for evaluating media (demographics, audience, rankings, perspectives, etc.).

FIND MEDIA DATA & INFO IN BUSINESS & JOURNAL DATABASES

Search our Sociology and Business databases to find articles with data and other information about your topic:

 

I.  Find the best databases:

 

II.  Here are some example search strategies:

  • immigration AND (news OR newspapers OR media OR television OR blogs)
  • blogs AND (rating* OR reader* OR survey* OR market*)
  • "Daily Show" AND (viewer* OR survey* OR data OR market* OR rating*)

 

FIND MEDIA DATA & INFO -- HOW TO SEARCH THE WEB

1.  Find websites with information about specific media or shows:

[Name of medium or name of show] and (viewer* or subscri* or reader* or rating* or survey* or market* or demograp*)

For example:

"Daily Show" and (viewer* or subscri* or reader* or rating* or survey* or market* or demograph*)

"O'Reilly Factor" and (viewer* or subscri* or reader* or rating* or survey* or market* or demograph*)

 

2.  Find websites that help you find general media demographics

a.  Use Google's ADVANCED SEARCH

b.  Enter: 

(newspaper* or radio* or media* or blog* or television* or magazine*) and (viewer* or subscri* or reader* or rating* or survey* or market* or demograp*)

c.  Limit the DOMAIN to .edu, .org, and/or .gov (you'll need to try each DOMAIN as a separate search)

3.   Find articles and books with media demographics

Use the databases listed above.   Here are some example search strategies:

blogs and (rating* or reader* or survey* or market*)

"Daily Show" and (viewer* or survey* or data or market* or rating*)

 

 

FIND MEDIA DATA & INFO IN BOOKS

1.  Library Catalog -- example search:

(viewer* OR circulat* OR subscript* OR reader* OR rating* OR market* OR surveys OR audience*)

AND

(media OR newspaper* ORr periodical* OR television OR radio OR blog* OR internet OR digital OR "social media" OR facebook)

 

 

2.  Some of the sources available in Swem's Reference Collection:

 

  • Editor & Publisher International Yearbook (Ref PN4700 .E42) -- newspaper circulation figures
  • Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media (Ref Z6951 .A97)
  • Magazines for Libraries (Ref PN4832 .A1 K3) -- evaluations of magazines and journals, with information about the intended audience.
  • Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook  (Ref HF6146 .R3 B72)
  • Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys (Ref HC 106.6 .S74) -- data and overviews of industries, including broadcasting/cable and publishing.