NOTE:
Off-campus access
to article databases listed in this guide is limited to WSU students,
staff, and faculty. If you have questions, chat with us
online. Just click on the Online Assistance button at the
top right of this page. Or call the Reference Desk 626-6415 or
toll free 1-877-306-3140
Using Catalogs: Use the WSU
online
catalog to find the location and availability of books, journal
titles, and media in Stewart Library. Use the
General Keyword option
and search for the term "investigative reporting" or "investigative
journalism" (without quotes) or a topic of your choice. To search
for a specific title, choose the
Title Keyword option
or do an alphabetic search by title.
Interlibrary Loan: If we do not
own a particular book or article you need, we will borrow it for
you from another library through Interlibrary
Loan.
Reference resources include
encyclopedias, dictionaries and other materials you "refer"
to rather than read cover to cover. Use these resources for background
information on a topic. The Reference Collection is on the
Middle level. Some useful resources for the broad subject of Communication
include
The Associated Press
Guide to Internet Research and Reporting Reference ZA
4201 .B38 2001
History of the Mass
Media in the United States Reference P 92
.U5 H55 1998
Keyguide to Information Sources in Media Ethics
Reference P 94 .M22 1998
ARTICLE DATABASES
To find articles on
your topic you need to use article databases, also known as periodical
indexes, located on the library's home page. Databases are
arranged by broad subject categories. Select the category most
relevant to your topic. Search by subject or keyword in these
indexes. Most databases are available to WSU students, faculty
and staff from off campus. See Connecting
from Home for more information. The following
databases are good starting places for investigative journalism
topics.
- Communication
and Mass Media Complete This database is an excellent
collection of indexing and abstracts from over 400 journals in
the fields of communication and mass media. Nearly 200 of those
have full text coverage.
- ComAbstracts/ComIndex/CIOS
A database devoted to articles and links to web sites on
the broad topic of communication. Indexing for over 50,000 journalism/communication
articles and links to over 86,000 web pages from communication
departments in colleges and universities
- EbscoHost
databases About two dozen databases including Academic Search
Premier, Business Source Premier, Newspaper Source, and several
health-related databases. All are available from off-campus to
WSU students. Most are also available to Utah residents
for home access from Pioneer,
Utah's Online Library
- Lexis
Nexis Includes Academic Universe and Congressional Universe.
Very strong in the fields of business, law, medicine, and politics.
Click on Site Map to see what is included in each section.
Also includes full text articles from newspapers around the USA
and the world.
NEWSPAPERS
Finding
Government Resources
Start
at Stewart Library's Guide
for Government Information. Also use Stewart Library's
database Lexis-Nexis
to find full text public laws, state laws from all 50 states and
much more. Here are some selected sites:
Here are
some WWW sites to get you started. Most of these will take you to
other links, so explore!
- AmericanRhetoric.com
Audio and streaming video of thousands of public speeches, lectures,
sermons, etc,
- Google groups Comprehensive
list of discussion groups.
- Google Scholar
Find articles, conference reports and more
- Government Information
A good selection of links to U.S. and Utah government sites.
- Investigative Reporters and Editors
IRE is a great starting place for those interested in investigative
journalism.
- New
York Times Navigator Selective guide to web sites
especially useful for journalists.
- NewsPlace for News and
Sources This site by Northern Illinois University includes
links to journalism groups, lists, people locators, etc.
- Reporter.org Another
great selection of web sites for journalists, including links
to news sources, organizations, etc.
- Resourceshelf.com
Resources and news for information professionals compiled by Gary
Price. Arrow down on the left of the page for links to Direct
Search (Invisible Web resources), Price's List of Lists, Speech
and Transcript Center, and more.
- RobertNiles.com
Useful web links for journalists.
- Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification
Lots of Utah crime stats and info on availability of Utah criminal
history records.
- Virtual Gumshoe
Comprehensive list of links.
- Clearly identify your information need
- Identify key words and search terms
to match your topic
- Develop search statements using advanced search techniques
- Boolean logic, adjacency searching and truncation
- Use the Online
catalog to find books
- Use article databases to
find journal articles
- If articles are not full text, search Ejournals
to see if a particular journal is full text in another database
- If a journal is not available full text online, check the online
catalog to see if the journal is owned by Stewart Library in paper
copy. Materials are arranged by their call numbers.
- Use Interlibrary loan
to get materials that are not available through Stewart Library
- Use search
engines to find Web information
- Carefully
evaluate the information you find for usefulness and quality
- Revise your search terms and strategy to expand or narrow your
results.
- Use appropriate style to document and cite research
- Ask for HELP
at Reference, via phone,
chat, or email.