Brandel Library

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.