WR121 Carlsen Spring 2019: Reliable research resources
How to choose your news (TED-ED five minutes)
Trustworthy news sources
No news source gets everything right 100% of the time and is completely free of bias. Here are some characteristics of the best news sources.
- Practice fact-based journalism grounded in professional ethics
- Clearly separate opinion (editorial) and news stories
Examples of trustworthy news sources:
- New York Times (center-left perspective)
- Wall Street Journal (center-right perspective)
- Al-Jazeera and BBC (international perspective)
Sources for checking the media bias of news sources:
Google News Custom Search
This Google Custom Search only searches the following 10 news sites, selected by PCC librarians and instructors, as reasonably reliable news sources that practice fact-based journalism. The sites searches include a mix of national and interrnation news sources: Al-Jazeera; BBC; Christian Science Monitor; Economist; New York Times; ProPublica; PBS; Reuters; Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Search library databases
Library databases provide access to published articles from magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. Unlike some of the search results you will get from a web search, the published articles in database are almost always written by professionals and reviewed by an editor, which improves reliability.
Choosing which database to search depends on your topic. To find out which database would work well for your topic use the subject based research guides for your topic's discipline (to find people who will write articles about the topic). You can also use the Articles and Databases link for a complete listing of available databases. Here are some good options for many topics:
- EBSCOhost This link opens in a new windowSearch from a wide range of research databases for magazine and journal articles. Updated daily. View the EBSCOhost handout
Mobile URL: EBSCOhost Mobile - US Major Dailies This link opens in a new windowFull text newspapers from five U.S. national and regional newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune
- ProQuest This link opens in a new windowNews, magazine and journal articles as well as ebooks on all topics. Includes Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch and Alt-PressWatch databases for perspectives outside the mainstream.
- Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new windowA one-stop source for information on current social issues. Includes viewpoint articles on both sides of an issue, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full text magazine and newspaper articles. View the Opposing Viewpoints handout [pdf]
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowTopical, full text reports on controversial issues. Each report features a summary, chronology, and bibliography. Updated weekly.