Subject Librarian
Sidney Silverman Library
Bergen Community College
400 Paramus Rd.
Paramus, NJ 07652
jdalrymple@bergen.edu
How to Use This Guide
Get in Touch: If you have questions about research or finding good articles, please email me and we can meet!
- News vs. Opinion vs. AnalysisConfused about how to tell news from analysis? See this link for a quick breakdown of what you need to know.
Getting Started on a Topic
Start your research process by looking into background information on your topic. You want to understand a little bit of history and context surrounding any current or controversial events.
- Opposing Viewpoints In Context This link opens in a new windowContains overviews and pro/con essays on current controversial issues. Also includes recent newspaper, magazine, and journal articles.
- Points of View Reference Source This link opens in a new windowPro and con essays that present multiple sides of a current issue. Also contains newspaper and magazine articles.
- Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new windowExplore hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture. Presented in a balanced, pro/con format, each article presents the key facts, arguments, history, and current context - a great starting point for research.
- AllSidesThis site helps you sort through media bias and misinformation by presenting news from different perspectives.
- Vox ExplainerVox breaks down current events with background info and links to other relevant articles.
- WikipediaWikipedia is a great source for overviews and background info, especially on topics that aren't covered as much in the mainstream press. Use it as a jumping off point, and be careful with articles that have very few references.
Find Current News & Analysis
Pay attention to the source (publisher) of your article and mostly stick to major news outlets. In library databases, remember to limit your search by publication date.
- U.S. News from ProQuest Cental This link opens in a new windowOffers access to one of the largest collections of local and regional news, including Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
- Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowGeneral database good for all subject areas. Contains newspaper, magazine and scholarly journal articles.
- Google NewsSearch a wide spectrum of news stories on a topic. Remember that Opinion or Editorial articles are more slanted and different from straight reporting.
Media Literacy
- Media Bias Chart from AllSidesMedia outlets are displayed based on political bias. AllSides uses expert opinions and large-scale surveys of the public to determine bias.
- Interactive Media Bias ChartNews sources are rated by a small group of human analysts to determine bias.
- Lateral Reading TipsFrom the News Literacy Project: Use lateral reading to discover and/or confirm credibility and bias.
- How to detect bias in news mediaFrom FAIR ("Fairness in Accurate Reporting"), a national media watchdog group, here are questions to help you detect bias in the media you consume.
Data & Statistics
Below are some sites to find data & statistics and a pre-formatted Google search. Searching in Google for [site:.gov voter registration and data] gives you just government sites with data on voter registration. Substitute a different topic for voter registration to find statistics on other issues.
- Pew Research CenterIndependent fact center that does original research on issues facing the world.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowContains statistical data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas. Easy to download graphs and charts for powerpoint presentations.