Search Terms and Strategies:
Original:
1. Media Bias
2. Media and the Election
3. (President's Name) and Social Media
Revised:
1. Mass Media and Politics
2. Media and the US Presidential Election
3. Media Influence and Presidential Election
1. Media Bias
2. Media and the Election
3. (President's Name) and Social Media
Revised:
1. Mass Media and Politics
2. Media and the US Presidential Election
3. Media Influence and Presidential Election
Useful Databases
The database World Wide Political Science Abstracts is very useful for this topic, media’s influence on the presidential election. Just by using the search term “presidential election and 2008,” the database pulls up many useful documents about forecasting the election, bias in the election and even voting preferences; all articles useful to this topic. There is also the option to switch out “2008” for “media” to receive results about the role of media in the election and misrepresentations of the election. This database is very user friendly and is especially appealing because you can use search terms and select an option to pull up related figures and tables if you wish. The database provides very simple methods of narrowing your search, and provides suggested subjects based on the keywords you’ve entered that retrieve equally as impressive articles. Overall,World Wide Political Science Abstracts is very pleasing, from its modernized look, ease of searching and useful researching tools and will definitely be using this database for finding articles on this particular topic.
The database Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection is a great source of information on this topic. The emphasis of the articles is how the bias of the media could influence the thinking of the masses and directly affect political outcomes. The search function allows you to type in phrases and directly answers questions surrounding the topic, which is very useful. If you happen to misspell a word in your search phrase, there is even a validation mechanism that suggested valid alternative. There is also the option of specifying the fields which to search e.g. Author, Title etc. Additionally, you can also refine results based on Source Type.
The database Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection is a great source of information on this topic. The emphasis of the articles is how the bias of the media could influence the thinking of the masses and directly affect political outcomes. The search function allows you to type in phrases and directly answers questions surrounding the topic, which is very useful. If you happen to misspell a word in your search phrase, there is even a validation mechanism that suggested valid alternative. There is also the option of specifying the fields which to search e.g. Author, Title etc. Additionally, you can also refine results based on Source Type.
Use caution with these databases...
The database, the LexisNexis Congressional is a rather useless database with unattractive features. Although you have the option to restrict the dates and time periods that the information is being pulled from, beyond the basic ability to search for keywords like in any database, the search page is otherwise a little scattered (not to mention, unappealing to the eye!) One form of the search page allowed you to retrieve information about congressional and legislative histories, but you must direct the search to another page using a link on the side if you wish to search for information about history of laws, members, political news, etc. Using the search term “presidential election and 2008” only retrieves one result about the election and nomination of the year 2008’s president. The other articles retrieved were about Zimbabwe and having the right to vote; not what I was looking for! I will not be using this database for my team’s project because it is poorly organized and overwhelming.
The Alternative Press Index Database is also disappointing. You would think that with the many non-traditional media sources available, you'd be able to find some modern information on this topic. However, the articles that were returned, despite using targeted search phases, were not nearly as helpful as those returned from the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences database. The articles returned also tended to be international in their scope, which could be helpful, but exceeded the scope of our purposes.
The Alternative Press Index Database is also disappointing. You would think that with the many non-traditional media sources available, you'd be able to find some modern information on this topic. However, the articles that were returned, despite using targeted search phases, were not nearly as helpful as those returned from the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences database. The articles returned also tended to be international in their scope, which could be helpful, but exceeded the scope of our purposes.