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Search Strategies
For academic and news databases, as well as the Omni for books
- Develop a search statement
- A search statement is a list of keywords, combined using Boolean Operators (AND; OR; NOT)
- AND - this will combine concepts, all of which must be found in your list of results
- gender AND representation
- OR - either this concept or that concept (or both). This is helpful for generating a list of synonyms. Use synonyms to anticipate the different ways different authors may refer to the same idea. A thesaurus can be helpful for this
- film OR movie
- NOT - do not include this concept
- radio NOT podcast
- Quote marks - find specific phrase or name
- "video game"
- "shawshank redemption"
- Truncation - any combination of letters to follow
- canad* - will find Canada, Canadian, Canadian's, etc.
- sex* - will find sexual, sexuality, sexualism, etc.
- combine one or more of these operators
- put a list of synonyms in brackets
- AND - this will combine concepts, all of which must be found in your list of results
- For example, my topic might be to explore the sexualization of female roles in motion picture. My search statement might look something like this:
- sex* AND (female OR women OR girl) AND (film OR movie OR "motion picture")
News and Magazine Databases
- Alternative Press Index
- Canadian Newsstream
- Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database (Canadian news and magazines)
- Factiva (international news)
- explore other resources in the News Guide
Web Resources
- The Critical Media Project - U.S. focus
- Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media
- GLAAD - Working for LGBT acceptance in news and entertainment media
- Where We Are on TV (2015-16)
- Media Smarts - Canada's Centre for Digital and Media Literacy
- Women's Media Centre (WMC) - Amplifying Women's Voices, Changing the Conversation
- UNESCO's activities in communication and information by themes
Books and Films
- Search Omni
- do a keyword search, and isolate to books (from Entire Collection)
- ...or, isolate to Video for a list of DVDs and streaming films
- Some helpful subject headings to explore:
- Communication -- Encyclopedias
- Communication -- Philosophy
- Communication in Social Action
- Critical Theory
- Cyberspace -- Social Aspects
- Digital Media -- Social Aspects
- Mass Media -- Audiences
- Mass Media -- Philosophy
- Mass Media -- Political Aspects
- Mass Media -- Social Aspects
- Mass Media and Culture
- Mass Media and Race Relations
- Mass Media and Sex
- Media Literacy
- Minorities in Mass Media
- Popular Culture
- Sex on Television
- Social Classes in Mass Media
- Video Games -- Social Aspects
Databases for Journal Articles
- Communication and Mass Media Complete
- Gender Studies Database
- Scopus
- Sociological Abstracts
- and don't forget to explore Omni, the search box on the Library's homepage (searches most of our databases and other resources simultaneously)
Other Subject Guides
- Communication
- Film Studies
- Games: Studies and Development
- Gender Studies
- Migration and diaspora studies
- Music
- Pornography
- Sociology
- Women and Gender Studies
Citation
- Using APA Style (Carleton University Library)
- APA Style Lite
- Citation Management (tools supported by the library)