Research Guides: PPLE 210-01N Contemporary Issues & Zines: Starting Point

Composite of photos taken January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol in Washington DC available from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's public files

montage of photos taken 2021-01-06 at US Capitol in Washington DC available from FBI public files

Links to some interesting resources:

Scandal in a Digital Age by Hinda Mandell and Gina Masullo Chen (Editors)
Call Number: Hatfield Library -- 2nd Floor Stacks ; P96.S29 S23 2016
ISBN: 1137597739
Publication Date: 2016
"Explores the way today's interconnected and digitized world--marked by social media, over-sharing, and blurred lines between public and private spheres--shapes the nature and fallout of scandal in a frenzied media environment."
Drawn to Extremes : the use and abuse of editorial cartoon by Chris Lamb
Call Number: Hatfield Library - 2nd Floor Stacks ; E183 .L36 2004
ISBN: 0231130678
Publication Date: 2006
"Unrestricted by journalistic standards of objectivity, editorial cartoonists wield ire and irony to reveal the naked truths about presidents, business leaders, and other public figures. Indeed, since the founding of the republic, cartoonists have both made an important contribution to and offered a critical commentary on our society." "This book demonstrates the limits of cartooning from the courtroom to the newsroom.
Visual Political Communication by Anastasia Veneti; Daniel Jackson; and Darren G. Lilleker (Editors)
Call Number: Hatfield Library -- 2nd Floor Stacks ; JA85 .V575 2019
ISBN: 9783030187286
Publication Date: 2019
"Offers a theoretically driven, empirically grounded survey of the role visual communication plays in political culture, enabling a better understanding of the significance and impact visuals can have as tools of political communication."
Music Is Power by Brad Schreiber
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 1978808151
Publication Date: 2019
"Popular music has long been a powerful force for social change. Protest songs have served as anthems regarding war, racism, sexism, ecological destruction and so many other crucial issues. Music Is Power takes us on a guided tour through the past 100 years of politically-conscious music, from Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie to Green Day and NWA"
An Interview with William Proxmire : basic research has a place, says the man with the Golden Fleece by Robin Marantz Henig (interviewer)
Call Number: Article in "BioScience" from JSTOR
Publication Date: March 1980 (Vol. 30 Issue 3, p149-152)
"An interview with William Proxmire, sponsor of the Golden Fleece Award and chairman of the U.S. Senate appropriations subcommittee on independent agencies. Speaking about the negative image of the awards, he says that criticism has been almost entirely in the social science area and not in the natural science area. He agrees that the federal obligations for basic research has grown. He believes that the fundamental purpose of a university should be teaching."
Golden Fleece Awards, 1975-1987 by William Proxmire (U.S. Senator from Wisconsin serving 1957 - 1989)
Call Number: Online Archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society
Publication Date: 1975 through 1987
"In March 1975, Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire sent out his first press release identifying wasteful government spending. He called these monthly bulletins "Golden Fleece Awards" and they became a popular feature of his Senate tenure. Given here are digital copies of the Golden Fleece press releases, 1975-1987, from Sen. Proxmire's papers. In this digital version, each year opens with his summary of the 12 awards. A handful of the monthly press releases are missing and none have survived from 1984, which contains only the annual summary. The whole series is preceded by a 12-page list of all 159 awards compiled by WHS staff in 2010, and two undated compilations compiled by Sen. Proxmire's office."

Esquire Magazine's Annual "Dubious Achievement Awards"
For many years, Esquire has published its annual Dubious Achievement Awards, lampooning events of the preceding year. As a running gag, the annual article almost always displayed an old photo of Richard Nixon laughing, with the caption, "Why is this man laughing?" However, the February 2006 "Dubious Achievement Awards" used the caption under a photo of W. Mark Felt, the former FBI official revealed in 2005 to be "Deep Throat", the source for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to uncover the Watergate scandal. The magazine discontinued the Nixon photo in February 2007, referring to a poll stating that George W. Bush had surpassed Nixon as the "worst president ever". "Dubious Achievement Awards" were discontinued in 2008, according to an editor's note in the January 2008 issue, considering that the overabundance of imitators had made the feature superfluous however, after a nine-year hiatus, the feature was revived in the January 2017 issue with a skewering of 2016 events. (text from WIKIPEDIA)

What is Peer-Review?

Peer-review is an evaluation process in which qualified individuals within specialized field of study reviews literature before it becomes published in academic journals. This process helps keep standards held by the profession, improves the quality of work being published, and provides credibility & reliability to published works & authors publishing the work. The 3-minute video below describes and discusses the importance of peer-review and its process.

(NCSU video, 3:15 min.)

Authoritative Reference Sources vs Wikipedia

Wikipedia can be a good resource for getting general info about something, but because anyone can contribute or change its content, it is considered unreliable. College faculty typically do not consider Wikipedia a credible stand-alone information source.

You can turn directly to the sources referenced at the bottom of most Wikipedia entries, to get more detailed information about the nuances & historical items of interest that were summarized by Wikipedia.

You can also supplement or verify the information found in Wikipedia by using the library's print or electronic encyclopedias, dictionaries, or other reference books to backup the basic information of your research paper. These library oriented resources have gone through an editorial process to check for accuracy.

How to Limit to Peer-Review Journals

Many databases offer a quick way limit your results to peer review literature. Databases, such as Academic Search Premier, have a box to check for scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. Below is a screenshot of a database that has a check-box to limit results only to scholarly, peer-reviewed articles.

How to Evaluate Resources (Print & Electronic)

1. Reason

Who is the intended audience?
Is scope or purpose specifically stated? Do the contents match the stated scope?
Is the point of view stated? Is there a particular agenda that is being pushed?
Does it have an established reputation? If so, consider what kind of reputation it represents?
What is the publisher's or website host's motivation for providing the information? (Advertising for profit, part of agency's mission, educational purposes, reporting original research, publicizing a particular agenda)
What information can be gained about a website's domain code of the host address?

.com = commercial source
.gov = government agency
.org = non-profit organization
.net = consortium (profit or non-profit)
.edu = educational institution

2. Readability

Is the text well written? Is it written in the language of the discipline or for a general audience?

Does the source have features, such as charts, illustrations, or a bibliography, that will be helpful?

Is the information needed to cite the material easily found?

Is there a lot of information available or is the information it provides limited?

Does the document provide references to other more detailed resources (either print or online)? Are links to other Web resources labeled clearly?

3. Reliability

Is objectivity a factor?

Who is the author?

Does the author provide credentials demonstrating expertise or knowledge of the subject?

Is the publisher reputable?

Does the resource contain grammatical, spelling or typographical errors?

Is there any contact information provided?

Are facts, such as statistics, accurate, current, and verifiable? Are sources of information cited?

What sources or methods did the author use to gather the information?

Is the method of obtaining data accurate and dependable?

Is it refereed/peer-reviewed or did just a staff editor review it? Peer-review means a scholar or researcher in the related field has reviewed it before publication.

How frequently is the resource updated?

Are the links to other resources current? And is the page finished or still under construction?

4. References

Does the author list where they get their information from (e.g. footnotes, bibliography, or reference list)?

Are there many sources listed?

Are the author's sources reliable?

Can you follow their listed sources to obtain the original information sources?

Gary Klein (Reference Librarian)

Gary Klein

he / him / his

Email Me

Contact:

Mark O. Hatfield Library
Willamette University
900 State Street
Salem, OR 97301

503-370-6743

Subjects: Atkinson (AGSM), Business, Civic Communication & Media, Economics, Education, Management, Politics, Policy, Law and Ethics, Psychology, Rhetoric & Media Studies

PPLE 210-01N Contemporary Issues & Zines: Starting Point