14 News as a Source

The best value in news sources is their currency. Recall that they occur at the beginning of the information cycle. However, for this same reason, the accuracy of a news source needs to be verified with other sources or those sources that come later in the information cycle.  For instance, news sources are excellent for finding out people’s reactions around the time of an event or information that might address the who, what when, where of the event.

So whether news sources are good for your assignment depends on what your research question is, and whether your instructor requires news sources for a particular assignment. (You’ll find other relevant information at Sources and Information Needs.)

News is a strange term, because even when the information is old, it’s still news. Some sources are great for breaking news, some are great for aggregated (or compiled) news, and others are great for historical news.

While news was transmitted for centuries only in newspapers, news is now transmitted in multiple formats: via radio, television, and the open web, in addition to print. The impact of the internet has had a rather deleterious effect on newspapers as a source.

By their very nature, news sources are brief; they are the initial documentation for an event in a professional context (of course, often times now, it is a citizen who first documents the event unofficially through social media).

See Publication Formats and the Information Lifecycle for more information.

When Are News Sources Helpful?

• You need breaking news or historical perspectives on a topic (what people were saying at the time of a historical event, which makes these types of sources also primary sources).
• You need to learn more about a culture, place, or time period from its own sources.
• You want to keep up with what is going on in the world today.

When Are News Sources of Limited Use?

• You need very detailed analysis by experts.
• You need sources have the highest degree of accuracy and reliability, which are usually sources that occur later in the information cycle of an event because enough time has passed for information to be verified and confirmed.

Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)

• As you are likely aware, there are many sources of information freely available from the open web that tauts itself as a legitimate news source. However, much of the discussion about “fake news”, which will be a preoccupation in this class, is around this phenomenon that has proliferated in recent years. In the next section, we will begin to discuss the distinction between what has been referred to as “mainstream” vs. “non-mainstream news” sources.

Mainstream and Non-Mainstream News Sources

Mainstream (aka Mainline) American news outlets stick with the tradition of trying to report the news as objectively as possibly. That doesn’t mean their reports are perfectly objective, but they are more objective than the non-mainstream (aka non-mainline) sources. As a result, mainstream news sources are more credible than non-mainstream sources. Some examples of mainstream American news outlets: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times; ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, PBS News, NPR News. These sources have a long history of adhering to established journalistic standards and rigor, attempting to maintain a credible reputation that each organization stands by and defends through fact-checking and editing, and an investment in providing timely, accurate, and objective news reporting. Again, this is not to say that news reporters from these organizations are perfect.

We will discuss more through our class what further distinguishes these organizations from the ones that follow, the non-mainstream news. Mainstream news organizations aim to inform and educate whereas non-mainstream organizations aim to persuade.

News from non-mainstream American news outlets is often equally dominated by opinion. One way they frequently exhibit bias is that they leave out pertinent facts. Some examples of non-mainline American news outlets: MSNBC, Fox News, Gawker, Reddit. The adherance of these organizations to a journalistic code of ethics/standards can vary from high to non-existent. Non-mainstream sources often can be identified by the general slant they give to all their news items with less effort given to objective language and a neutral tone along with more lackadaisical use of inflammatory terms. For tv or video or talkradio news, other signs include the newscaster’s volume when speaking, and the emotional effusion sprinkled throughout the reporting.

Types of News Sources

Press Services—News outlets (print, broadcast, and online) get a lot of their news from these services, such as Reuters or Associated Press (AP), which make it unnecessary for individual outlets to send their own reporters everywhere. Services are so broadly used that you may have to look at several news outlets to get a different take on an event or situation.

News aggregators—Aggregators don’t have reporters of their own but simply collect and transmit the news reported by others. Some sources pull news from a variety of places and provide a single place to search for and view multiple stories. You can browse stories or search for a topic. Aggregators tend to have current, but not archival news. Google news and Yahoo News are examples.

Newspaper sites – Many print newspapers also have their own websites. They vary as to how much news they provide for free. Take a look at these examples.

• USA Today
• The Boston Globe
• The Los Angeles Times
• The Times of London
• China Daily, USA edition
• The New York Times

News Databases – Search current, recent, and historical newspaper content in databases provided free-of-charge by libraries. The GHC Library has over 40 databases accessible to students, staff, and faculty. Many include newspaper sources, but ones that are solely focused on news include:

• NewsBank
• U.S. Major Dailies
• U.S. West Newstream
• Washington State News

Go to the GHC Databases List to find more sources that contain newspapers along with magazines & journals.

Blogs (Professional vs. Personal) – Not all blogs are created the same. There are a lot of personal blogs that wouldn’t be the most credible sources to use for academic or professional work. However, there are also professional (or academic) blogs by professional writers, academics, area experts such as scientists who might extend their professional expertise from their institutions into a less formal virtual space as a blog. So evaluate a blog the same way you would evaluate any other source for credibility, reliability, authority, and accuracy. See section on Evaluating Sources.

Sometimes blogs are good sources for breaking news, as well as commentary on current events and scholarship. Authors who write more objectively elsewhere can share more insights and opinions, more initial questions and findings about a study before they are ready to release definitive data and conclusions about their research.

Citizen Journalism – A growing number of sites cater to those members of the general public who want to report breaking news and submit their own photos and videos on a wide range of topics. The people who do this are often referred to as citizen journalists.

Remember that while you may locate the initial happenings of an event from a citizen journalist site or posting, these are not generally considered credible sites to use as references or sources to support an academic or professional paper. Consider these sites in a similar fashion as you would Wikipedia — that is, starting here is fine, as long as you can verify the information you find on these sites by using other more credible and reliable sources, whether in the open web or elsewhere like books, or other library resources.

News Feeds – You can get updates on specific topics or a list of major headlines, regularly sent to you so you don’t have to visit sites or hunt for new content on a topic. Look for links that contain headings such as these to sign up for news feeds:

• News Feeds
• News Alerts
• Table of Contents Alerts