Sources can be categorized by publication format. That’s because of the difference in time and effort sources in each format require for their production.

Sources in particular formats simply cannot exist until there has been enough time for people to create them. Therefore, sources that are created toward the end of the information lifecycle may come to very different conclusions about an event than did those sources created early on. Sometimes the information presented in the later formats is more valid and reliable than what is in earlier formats because more information has become available.

A Closer Look at Common Formats

• Books – Usually a substantial amount of information, published at one time and requiring great effort on the part of the author and a publisher.

• Magazines/Journals– Published frequently, containing lots of articles related to some general or specific professional research interest; edited.

• Newspapers– Each is usually a daily publication of events of social, political and lifestyle interest.

• Websites– Digital items, each consisting of multiple pages produced by someone with technical skills or the ability to pay someone with technical skills.

• Articles– Distinct, short, written pieces that might contain photos and are generally timely. Timeliness can mean that it’s something that is of interest to readers at the point of publication or that is something the writer is thinking about or researching at a given point of time.

• Conference Papers– Written form of papers delivered at a professional or research-related conference. Authors are generally practicing professionals or scholars in the field.

• Blogs– Frequently updated websites that do not necessarily require extensive technical skills and can be published by virtually anyone for no cost to themselves other than the time they devote to content creation. Usually marked by postings that indicate the date when each was written.

• Documentaries– Works, such as a film or television program, presenting political, social, or historical subject matter in a factual and informative manner and often consisting of actual news films or interviews accompanied by narration.

• Online Videos– Short videos produced by anybody, with a lot of money or a little money, about anything for the world to see. Common sites for these are YouTube and Vimeo.

• Podcasts– Digital audio files, produced by anyone and about anything, that are available for downloading, often by subscription.

Scholarly Articles as Sources

Articles in scholarly journals are valued for several reasons. First, they are usually trustworthy because their publication process includes a peer review that helps ensure their accuracy and contribution to their disciplines. In addition, they often contain the first reports of new research, which make up their sections on methodology, data, analysis, and interpretation of primary sources. Sometimes they are literature reviews, or summaries of multiple research studies done in the past on subjects of current interest. Their concise summation of other sources makes those articles very helpful secondary sources.

Peer-Reviewed Sources

The most-respected scholarly journals are peer-reviewed, which means that experts in their field other than the author and editor check out each article before it can be published. It’s their responsibility to help guarantee that new material is presented in the context of what is already known, that the methods the researcher used are the right ones, and that the article contributes new insights to the field.

For those reasons, peer-reviewed articles are more likely to be credible. Peer-reviewed journal articles are the official scholarly record, which means that if it’s an important development in research, it will probably turn up in a journal article eventually.

News as a Source

News sources can provide insights that scholarly sources may not or that will take a long time to get into scholarly sources. For instance, news sources are excellent for finding out people’s reactions, opinions, and prevailing attitudes around the time of an event.

Whether news sources are good for your assignment depends on what your research question is. News is a strange term, because even when the information is old, it’s still news. Some sources are great for breaking news, some are great for aggregated (or compiled) news, and others are great for historical news.

While news was transmitted for centuries only in newspapers, news is now transmitted in all formats: via radio, television, and the Internet, in addition to print. Even most newspapers have Internet sites today.

News must be brief because much of it gets reported only moments after an event happens. News reports occur early in the Information Lifecycle.

When Are News Sources Helpful?

You need breaking news or historical perspectives on a topic (what people were saying at the time).

• When you need to learn more about a culture, place, or time period from its own sources
• When you want to keep up with what is going in the world today

When Are News Sources of Limited Use?

• When you need very detailed analysis by experts
• When you need sources that must be scholarly or modern views on a historical topic

Mainline and Non-Mainline News Sources

Mainline American news outlets stick with the tradition of trying to report the news as objectively as possibly. That doesn’t mean their reports are perfectly objective, but they are more objective than the non-mainline sources. As a result, mainline news sources are more credible than non-mainline sources. Some examples of mainline American news outlets: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times; ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, PBS News, NPR News.

News from non-mainline American news outlets is often mixed with opinions. One way they frequently exhibit bias is that they leave out pertinent facts. Some examples of non-mainline American news outlets: MSNBC, Fox News, Gawker, Reddit.

Types of News Sources

Press Services—News outlets (print, broadcast, and online) get a lot of their news from these services, such as Reuters or Associated Press (AP), which make it unnecessary for individual outlets to send their own reporters everywhere. Services are so broadly used that you may have to look at several news outlets to get a different take on an event or situation.

News Aggregators—Aggregators don’t have reporters of their own but simply collect and transmit the news reported by others. Some sources pull news from a variety of places and provide a single place to search for and view multiple stories. You can browse stories or search for a topic. Aggregators tend to have current but not archival news. Google News and Yahoo News are examples.

Newspaper Sites – Many print newspapers also have their own websites. They vary as to how much news they provide for free.

News Databases – Search current, recent, and historical newspaper content in databases provided free by libraries. They include:

• U.S. Newstream
• America’s News
• Black Life in American
• Newspaper Source

Broadcast News Sites – Although broadcast news (from radio and television) is generally consumed in real time, such organizations also offer archives of news stories on their web sites. However, not all their articles are provided by their own reporters: some originate from the press services, Reuters and AP. Here are some examples of broadcast news  sites:

• ABC News
• BBC
• CNN
• NPR News

Social Media – Most of the news outlets listed above contribute to Twitter and Facebook. It’s customary for highly condensed announcements in this venue to lead you back to the news outlet’s website for more information. However, how credible tech companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google are with news is in serious doubt now that their lawyers have testified to the U.S. Congress that more than 100 million users may have seen content created by Russian operatives on the tech companies’ platforms leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Blogs – Sometimes these are good sources for breaking news, as well as commentary on current events and scholarship. Authors who write more objectively elsewhere can share more insights, opinions, or more initial questions and findings about a study before they are ready to release definitive data and conclusions about their research.

Citizen Journalism – A growing number of sites cater to those members of the general public who want to report breaking news and submit their own photos and videos on a wide range of topics. The people who do this are often referred to as citizen journalists.

Examples of such sources include CNN iReport and Reddit.

News Feeds – You can get updates on specific topics or a list of major headlines regularly sent to you, so you don’t have to visit sites or hunt for new content on a topic. Look for links that contain headings such as these to sign up for news feeds:

• RSS feeds
• News Feeds
• News Alerts
• Table of Contents Alerts

Continue Reading: 21.7 Data as Sources, People as Sources