Skip to Main Content

Finding media articles and academic literature for assessment 1

1. What you need to do

For assessment 1 you need to find the following information:

  • a relevant news/media article to use for your analysis, related to an organisational issue/workplace event or problem.
  • academic literature to help guide and support your analysis and recommendations.

This assignment help will guide you in finding both types of material.

​Please refer to your course site for the full assessment details.

2. Finding information - media articles

For your assignment you will need to find a relevant news/media article to use for your analysis.

The library subscribes to a number of databases which provide acess to Australian and international news media articles. You can search using the following database:

For more search options look at the News Media guide.

News media

How to search in Newsbank Newspapers
  1. Below is an example search on working from home
  2. Add your concept or search term into the search box
  3. Select Search.

  1. Newest articles are displayed as default.
  2. You can also refine your results by limiting the Source location > Australia

You can also browse news media articles by by using the 'Suggested Topics' on the hompage of Newsbank. To do this:

  • Select a suggested topic e.g. Business and economics.
  • Then select one of the sub-topics within this area e.g. Business types > Family-Owned Businesses
  • You can refine your results by applying filters such as date e.g. 2021-2022

3. Plan your search - academic literature

The first thing to do before finding your academic literature is to  plan your search. To do this: evaluate your question or topic and identify the key concepts and task words.

For example:

  • Question/task: Using examples found in current literature, describe how toxic leadership can affect motivation in the workplace.
  • Key concepts could include: Toxic leadership, motivation, workplace. 

To cover the range of terminology used in the literature, you must also identify any synonyms or alternative concepts for each concept.

For example:

Toxic leadership Motivation Workplace
Toxic boss Motive Worksite
Destructive leadership Incentive Company
Negative leadership Engagement Organisation 
  Hinder Office

To understand more about planning your search, watch or read:

5. Finding information - academic literature

The Library Collection can be a useful starting point in locating academic literature. The library catalogue locates information such as print and electronic books, journals, multimedia, and theses from numerous databases.

To do a search, try using

  • double quotes for phrases
  • truncation* to find the plural and other forms of a word
  • connect words and phrases using AND, OR and NOT

At the results list you can:

  • Limit to articles from Peer Reviewed publications 
  • Limit by Date eg 2016 to 2020
  • See the full text for many items by selecting the title, then look for the Online link
  • See Ask the Library for additional searching tips.

Business Source Ultimate provides information covering all areas of business including accounting and finance; banking; finance and insurance; construction; computer science; economics and more. Includes country economic reports as well as detailed company profiles.

This is an example of an Advanced Search using Business Source Ultimate.

You can limit your search by date range and to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals from the box on the left hand side of the results screen.

Google Scholar searches only within academic or scholarly sites, rather than over the whole internet like a regular Google Search. For more information on using Google Scholar, have a look at our Searching for your Literature Review Guide.

You can access Google Scholar from within library homepage. 

  1. Select Google Scholar from above the library catalogue search bar
  2. Enter your search terms, then select search

This will link you directly to articles that the Library has access to by clicking on the Fulltext at UniSA link.

6. Evaluate information

Is what you have located relevant and reliable? Are you uncertain whether to use the information you have found? Always critically evaluate what you find.

When evaluating information you can use the CRAAP test:

Currency How current does the information need to be? Do you need to use information published in the last five years or are older, seminal works fine to use?
Relevance Does the information found answer your question? Do you understand the content and is it at the right level for your purpose?
Authority What are the author's qualifications? Are they linked to a particular organisation such as a university, research institute or government department?
Accuracy Is evidence given for the research undertaken? Can you verify the information presented by using other sources? Is there a bibliography or references given?
Purpose Is it trying to communicate research, persuade you or sell you something? It is expressing an opinion, or is it balanced and objective?

7. More study help

Now you have your information, it is time to put everything together. The below resources will help you get started:

8. Feedback