- Brandel Library
- Research Guides
- COMM 3480: Media Ethics
- Understanding Primary Sources
COMM 3480: Media Ethics
This guide will help you find and evaluate background information and primary media sources for your research project.
Understanding Primary Sources
What's a Primary Source?
Traditional Definition of a Primary Source
First-hand evidence that comes from the time you are studying.
Our Revised Definition of a Primary Source
Any thing that you treat as evidence.
Analyzing Primary Sources
When you analyze a news article as a primary source, you must go beyond reading the content and critically evaluate the article as a piece of evidence. The questions in this guide to analyzing primary sources from the history department at Carleton College are a great resource for stimulating your critical thinking about the news media articles you select.