Newspapers, television and sound archives

Why use newspapers as a source?

Newspapers can be a useful source of information. However, whether they are good  for your assignment depends on your question and what you are studying.

Newspapers are useful when:

• You need breaking news or the topic is very recent.
• You need historical perspectives on a topic (what people were saying at the time).
• You need to learn more about a culture, place or time period from its own sources.
• You want to keep track of what is going on in the world.

Newspapers are less useful when:

• You need detailed analysis by experts.
• You need to use scholarly sources.
• You need modern views on a historical topic.

This section Why use newspapers as a source?  was adapted  by librarians at The Sir Alex Ferguson Library at GCU with a CC BY 4.0 license from Choosing & Using Sources: A guide to academic research, created by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries. 

Where to find newspaper articles