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Research Guides

COM 442: History of Media Technology & Regulation: Secondary Sources: Scholarly Books & Journal Articles

Why Use Secondary Sources?

 book cover: Seal of approval : the history of the comics code article example book jacket:  telephone the life story of a technology

Find Scholarly Journal Articles

Google Scholar

Because scholarly material for this class crosses disciplinary lines it can be useful to search the content of articles & books via Google Scholar. 

Find Books

UW Libraries Search logo  

Advanced Search | FAQ | Known Issues

UW Libraries Search is your starting point for finding books at the UW Libraries. In addition UW Libraries Search also includes citations to articles (often linked to fulltext). Use the options on the "Refine My Results" toolbar on the left of your search results screen. You can use these refinements to filter your results to books, by language, by library location, etc. 
 

  • To search for books by keywords just enter your terms into the search box -- for example: television children violence 

  • To search for a book by title use quotations around the first few words of the book -- for example: "seal of approval the history"

  • To search for a book by author type in the surname followed by the first name in quotes -- for example: "kielbowicz richard"

Scholarly Books & Journals as Research Resources

The raison d'être of historians is to explore the past and attempt to describe, explain, interpret and analyze it. Historians use evidence from the past (primary sources) to support their interpretations which are most often published in the form of books and journal articles (secondary sources). So why should you use secondary sources?

Strengths

  • Written by expert scholars. Before publication academic books and articles are vetted by other scholars in a process known as peer review.
  • Peer review ensures that scholarly books and articles are more reliable and credible than other types of publications.
  • Provide historical/broader/in depth context and analysis of a topic. 
  • Scholarly articles and books are based on evidence (primary sources) that are cited in the footnotes and bibliography. They are often a quick way to identify important evidence that you too may wish to use in your research paper. You can use this evidence and present your own interpretation.
 

Keep in mind

  • Expert scholars are likely to use specialized terminology and theory in their analyses making scholarly articles and books sometimes difficult to understand.

How to Read Scholarly Books & Articles

Scholarly articles and books have a purpose -- an argument (also called a thesis) that they are attempting to make about an issue and present evidence to support this argument. As you read a scholarly article first check to see if there is an abstract, a brief overview of the article. This will give you an idea if the article will be relevant for your research. Then look for the author's argument. Ask yourself, does the author adequately support their argument with evidence.

For more information on reading a scholarly article see: Analyzing Scholarly ArticlesHow to Read an Academic Article & How to Read a Secondary Source.