Media & Journalism  Tags: media_studies media  

Begin with your Subject guide.

Your lecturers have provided you with a selection of comprehensive and highly relevant reading resources. They have specifically chosen the most relevant resources from a vast body of literature to ensure that you are using the most appropriate texts.

These readings are usually organised by weekly lecture topics. Use the library catalogue to locate these items.

Keyword Searching

Before you start searching you need to:

• Determine the key concepts - Your research topic/essay question will help you identify the major concepts and keywords. e.g. audiences, television, talk shows, fans. 
• Define your search terms – think of synonyms and alternate terms e.g. broadcasting or radio, press or journalism, film or motion picture.
• If you have trouble identifying your keywords and concepts use a media dictionary or encyclopedia to find relevant terms.
• Truncate words with an asterisk * to find plurals or variants, eg austral* will retrieve Australia, Australiana, Australasia, Australian etc.
• Put phrases in quotation marks if you are not combining it with other keywords, e.g. "mass media" or "reality television".
• Limit your search results to specific formats, publication dates and locations
• Each catalogue record for an item contains hypertext links to alternate related subjects/topics.

Subject Searching

Use reference material to find definitions of unfamiliar terms, summaries of topics or as a starting point for information. The following are just some of the reference sources available in your area.