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ESTC35 - Guide to searching Canadian Media

A Guide to assist students in ESTC35 with their Media Analysis Assignment

The Media and Political & Social Issues

When studying the media's response to any topic, it can be useful to learn about the political, social and cultural implications of the coverage of the issue by journalists and other media sources. The scholarly work of political scientists and sociologists can help you to identify the political and societal context and importance of an environmental issue, and may even explicitly discuss the coverage of the issue in the news media.

Often, databases focusing on either Political Science or Sociology will likely be a good starting point for finding articles that will help you to understand the political and cultural context of an issue, and the boxes below provide more information on a variety of these resources.

Find Articles on Social Issues, Cultures and Societies

Sociology-specific databases, such as the ones below, are a great way of finding articles that deal with cultural and societal comparisons (globalization, developed vs. developing nations, how different societies or cultural groups interact with science and technology). Once again, you could also try multidisciplinary databases such as JSTOR or Scopus.

Sociological Abstracts

Social Sciences Abstracts

International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS)

  • main focus: sociology, political science, anthropology and economics
  • 70% English language with translations available
  • more information

More sociology databases