Resources for Pacific Seminar II

Reference Books

• Encyclopedia of Advertising.
  REF HF 5803 A38
• Encyclopedia of American Studies.
  REF E 169.1 E625
• Encyclopedia of Communication and Information.
  P 87.5 E53 2001
• Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture.
  REF E 169.12 E49
• International Encyclopedia of Social & Behavioral Sciences.
  REF H 41 I58
• St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture.
  REF E 169.1 S764

Reference Databases

• Gale Virtual Reference Library

Books

Using PacifiCat, search by combining keywords such as “culture and media” or “society and advertising” or “television and culture” or “internet and society.”

Articles

The same keywords you used to search for books may be too broad or inclusive when searching for journal articles. As a result, you may retrieve too many articles or items that appear irrelevant to your topic. Try to think of synonyms or related terms that more significantly describe your topic. For example, media is a broad term. A better keyword might be television or public opinion or commercials. Society and culture are also broad terms that include almost all aspects of our daily living. Try instead terms such as public opinion or fashion or violence or politics or psychology or persuasion. Searching with the “correct” keywords is an important step in finding good articles.

Use the following databases to find scholarly articles on your topic:

• Academic Search Complete
• Business Source Complete
• Communication & Mass Media
• JSTOR
• PsycInfo

Reliable Websites

Web sources you can trust!

• FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.
• Institute for Public Accuracy.
• Media Matters for America.
• National Center for Policy Analysis.
• Pew Research Center.
• The State of the News Media 2006: An Annual Report on American Journalism.