Skip to Main Content

English 001 (Wilson): How to Watch TV News and Patterns for College Writing: Search Statements

Formulating a Search Statement

  1. Come up with Search Terms (concrete nouns or key concepts in usually no more than a two word phrase for each INDIVIDUAL search term).  A search statement should NEVER be a long phrase or sentence.
  2. For mulltiple search terms put AND in between each one: Climate Change AND United States
  3. As you search databases, look at the Subjects list and jot down key subject words.  You may want to use those terms instead for future searching.
  4. When searching an EBSCO database, look at the left column for search limiters and click on any key subject headings to further limit your search.

Keywords

Next Step: Formulate The Statement

Minimum Wage AND Benefits AND United States AND Economy.

EBSCO Search Form

Limit Results with More Search Terms or Select Subjects on the Left side (in EBSCO Databases)

NOTE: Feel free to click on "Show More" for more subject heading suggestions students can select.  They can click in more than one checkbox.

For articles that are really on the mark, take note and jot down key subject headings below the article record.

Subject Headings below article

Note: If after reading an individual article, student wants to find more like that article, that's when they may want to look at what that article has CITED and then in Articles Plus, student can copy and paste an individual article title to see if that's available in the Library's full text collection.

Some Subject Heading Examples for This Assignment

SOME SUGGESTED SUBJECT HEADINGS FOR HOW TO WATCH TV NEWS

NOTE: terms such as "problematic nature of facts," "patterns of influence," "moral degeneracy," and "information glut" will not be as effective.  Use terms that are more conceptual and one or two word terms such as Facts, Influences, Morality, or terms that are generally conceptual enough that they do become a subject heading such as "information overload".  

In some cases, you may be mixing and matching in more than one category (obviously television journalists or television broadcasting of news are terms you will be using for most topics.  So don't look at a small set as the ONLY ones.  Also, DO NOT LIMIT what you just see here.  Read the suggestions listed on the LEFT of this page (limit results, read subject headings and jot down ones you may want to use for future searches).

General/Universal and 1-4"

Television broadcasting of news

Television journalists

Journalists

Associated Press

Disinformation

Selective dissemination of information

Fact checking

Mass Media--Objectivity

Bias (as a keyword)

Prejudices (subject heading for bias in most cases but use the bias term first as the Prejudices subject heading also uses the typical term for racial/gender prejudices, etc)

5.

Note: the challenge for searching on this one is the word “sense” (as in “making sense”) often appears in your searches.  My advice is when you find a good article, see what that article has cited and do a title search (of the article) in ARTICLES PLUS.

Senses

Senses and Sensation

Sensory Perception

6.

Media Manipulation (keyword, not a subject heading)

Misinformation

Television Viewers

Reporting

7.

saturation OR proliferation OR quantity (limit search to TITLE)

Television broadcasting of news

8. 

Mass Media--Objectivity

Fake News

Television Broadcasting Prejudices

Reliability

9.

Historical Reenactments

Documentary Television Programs

 

10.

Advertising

Advertising Affect (Psychology)

11.

Television Broadcasting of Court Proceedings

12.

Children

Child Psychology

13.

Violence

Shootings

Mass Media Ethics

Ethics

Desensitization

14.

Politicians

Scandals

(note– outside of scandals for ineptitude you can try keyword terms or focus on comedians as a search term to find resources.  You can try to add bias or prejudices to get to analysis of coverage perhaps of a politician and adding a key word like embarrassment).

15.

CNN Students News (TV Program)

CNN Ten

16.

Multiculturalism

Assimilation (Sociology)

Assimilation (Psychology)

17.

War

War in Mass Media

War and Ethics

18.

Information Overload

19.

Keyword: “bias in language” (surround the phrase in quotes in one of the lines)

20.

Keyword: “bias in pictures” (surround the phrase in quotes in one of the lines)

Visual Perception

21.

Television Viewers

Demographics

Audiences

Attitude (Psychology)

 

Subject Heading Suggestions for Patterns for College Writing

As the librarian has not read some of the individual essays, my best advice is to look at the essays and think what are the KEY CONCEPTS discussed in the essays.  

For example-- even if Orwell may be using his own definition of "imperialism," Imperialism is definitely a subject heading you can use.

Sex Differences and Communication (sometimes gender differences and communication) is good for Deborah Tannen topics.  

Passive Resistance is usually the term to discuss the protests Martin Luther King has advocated (and obviously terms such as segregation, civil rights, voting rights, etc. may be others in relation to this approach to protest).