This help page will get you started in finding scholarly resources for COMM 1083: Social Media and Society |
This introductory Library video covers:
Taking time to plan your search will save you time and help you find information more efficiently.
A table or mindmap - PDF (323.76 KB) can be a useful strategy for doing this.
For example, if your topic is Discuss the role of social media in disinformation campaigns you might identify the following main concepts and relevant synonyms:
Key concepts | Synonyms or alternative concepts |
social media |
social network, social platforms, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube... |
disinformation campaign | disinformation, smear campaign, conspiracy theories, propaganda, fake news, biased, false... |
Tip: As you search you may find more alternative words to include in searches.
Once you have identified your keywords and found alternative keywords, you need to connect these to put your search together.
Use the following operator words, which most search tools will have, to indicate how you want the tool to search for your keywords:
Remember to use "quotation marks" to keep phrases together.
For example:
("social media" OR Twitter OR Facebook) AND "disinformation campaign"
It is likely that at some point in your studies you will be asked to find 'scholarly', 'peer reviewed', or 'academic' sources.
What does this mean? These terms are often used interchangebly, but they are not always the same thing. Scholarly or Academic is an umbrella term used for different kinds of authoritative and credible sources including:
Peer reviewed (refereed) journals are of high quality. Each article has gone through an evaluation process with experts in the field before being published.
Knowing where to search is just as important as knowing how to search. Watch the Choosing where to search video (2 min 30 sec) to help you to understand why and when to use different search tools.
Select an option below to learn more about different places to search.
The Library Collection is a good place to start your search for scholarly material. You can use it to find eBooks, journal articles, reports, videos and more.
Quick tips to get you started:
Databases are online collections of resources including articles, papers, book chapters and reports. Databases have advanced search options, helping to focus your search and find more relevant, scholarly references quickly.
Want to know more?
Read: How to save time searching databases -PDF (301.42 KB)
To find news articles on a particular topic look at the Library databases listed under the News subject heading. These databases contain both Australian and international content:
See the News Media guide for more information
Google Scholar searches only within academic or scholarly sites, rather than the whole internet. Search Google Scholar directly from the Library homepage.
Want to know more?
It is important to evaluate the information you find. Watch this short video (3 min 17 sec) and, for more information, view the Evaluate page.
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