J 340: Principles of Public Relations
Spring 2009
Kathy Dabbour, COMS & Journalism Librarian

Introduction
Goal: Introduce to public relations research resources available to you.
Overview of Library home page
Overview of public relations home page http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/publicrelations.html

Overview of Periodical Indexes/Databases
Periodicals (magazines, newspapers, trade publications, and scholarly journals) are excellent sources of current and/or specific information for research projects.
It's a good idea to formulate a search strategy before using a periodical database.
The following databases use Boolean Logic (AND, OR, NOT) and truncation/wildcards symbols (*, ?, etc.) for combining keywords and phrases to locate articles on specific topics.
For a complete list of available databases, see Databases A-Z.
FYI, you can also connect to the Library's databases and full-text periodicals from off campus

General Periodical Sources
ABYZ Newspapers & News Media Guide

Los Angeles Times and the Daily News are best searched with Proquest Newspapers (cover later)

News + Current Issues includes links to many news databases, i.e., Sundial, Factiva, Lexis Nexis, etc. Can also search more than one at a time (except Lexis Nexis)

General Multi-subject Databases includes links to periodical databases that cover a variety of subject areas (can also search more than one at a time)

Specialized Periodical Sources for Public Relations Practice and Research
Communications and Mass Media Complete
Indexes and abstracts over 600 journals and trade publications; includes full text for over 240 journals. Subjects covered include journalism, public relations, mass media, photojournalism, communication studies, speech, linguistics, communicative disorders, deaf studies, advertising, and related areas of interest to practitioners and educators in these fields. Dates of coverage vary by journal. Use to look up stories about public relations, research.

Search #1:
public relations
8284 hits (too much!)
Keyword is good place to start, search a single word or phrase, but searching all mention of the words "public relations"not necessarily about PR


Search #2
SU public relations
5054 hits (better, still too much, now all articles about PR)
Subject, if matches database, more precise


Search #3
SU public relations and ( research or survey* or questionnaire* )
Add more keywords; use OR and * to expand
1394 hits (more keywords you add, less hits)

Search #4
SU public relations and ( research or survey* or questionnaire* )
Limiters - Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals

1176 hits (now limited to research journals)

Search #5
SU public relations and ( research or survey* or questionnaire* )
Limiters - Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals

Limit by Date of publication: 2000 - present
580 hits

Search #6
SU public relations and ( research or survey* or questionnaire* )
Limiters - Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals

Narrow by Geography: - UNITED States, if too much international
Date of publication: 2000 - present
217 hits (more manageable)

Look at full record
Print, Email, Save and choose citation style (APA, MLA)
Cite this article (warning that it is not perfect—check manual or library web site for examples)
Save to folder to do multiple citations at once

Locating Articles
Full text included, can print, email, save PDF or HTML
Find Text menu: links to full text in other databases if we have it; tells where we keep our print subscription if we have it
Interlibrary Loan if we don’t own at all

LexisNexis Academic
LN covers full text news, business, and legal sources. Out in the real world, law firms, etc., LN is different. We have LN “lite,” which is designed for the academic audience.

• General Easy search tab (default):
• Just searches words and phrases, like Google. No Boolean and, or, not or * like Ebsco. Limit by type of source to search and date as needed.
• Searches news sources (Major U.S. & World Publications = mostly trades and newswires, some big city U.S. and international English language newspapers);
• Non-English language news (languages covered include: German, Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian);
• Newswire services (PR Newswire, Associated Press, Reuters, etc.);
• Radio and television news broadcasts (cable, broadcast TV news; NPR radio, political campaign materials);
• Blogs (related to politics, business, news, industry);
• Company information;
• Legal (court cases and laws)
  
• Show how PR press releases are picked up in the newspapers, Blogs, and news broadcasts
• Example: blackberry curve limited to previous year and newswires and blogs only
• Show Results:
• Link to a full text record
• View: list, expanded, full
• Select documents for later printing, etc.
• Result group by category (type of source=news wires and press releases), subject (more relevant to search terms), company, geography, etc. for quick browsing
• Print, email, save
• Edit search to see how covered in the media
• Change to Major U.S. and World Publications
• Sources by category: newspapers (click + to expand list to specific newspaper titles)
• Can also search transcripts, blogs

• News tab: more specificity of sources, sections to search, public opinion polls, Spanish language, and legal news sources, etc. Allows use of Boolean (logical) connectors (and, or and not), greater specificity of information source than Easy Search, but still searching large groupings of publications; can also search by specific article section (headline, lead paragraph, byline, etc.)
• Reminder: AND narrows search (all search terms must be present in a record): blackberry curve and verizon
• Other narrower options than AND when searching anywhere in document (full text):
• Within (good for narrowing big search results)
• OR broadens search (any search term can be present in a record, enter in same box): Verizon or at&t or t-mobile
• Truncation (!) at the root of a word broadens search (root word and any variation on the ending, however if you enter singular term automatically searches the simple plural):
• AND Pric!
• Sources tab: find publications by name, type, where they are published, and get information about the source. Use for your article about a political topic where you can’t use the LA Times, Daily News or NY Times.
• Browse by publication type: News & Business
• Filter by: Country (US), Region/State (Illinois), Pub type (news), Source (newspapers)
• Select titles on list, use i icon to find out if it’s covering the dates you need, etc.
• Click OK Continue button
• Puts you into Power Search, can use Boolean logic, truncation, within, to search terms

• Business tab: Search for information and news on public (trade on stock exchanges) and private companies, general business news under “news”
• People tab: Search biographical information on famous people living and dead,

Legal tab: Allows searching law review journals, court cases, U.S. and state codes, Code of Federal Regulations, etc.

ProQuest Newspapers (back to general sources)
Full text newspaper database, only database that has the complete Los Angeles Times back to 1881, whereas Lexis only has the latest 6 months (you can get to the Times via their web site, but you will hit a point when you are asked to pay—use Proquest for complete coverage). Also has the Daily News back to 1995 and New York Times 1851- present

• Uses Boolean logic like CMMC, similar look and feel.
• Better regional coverage for U.S. newspapers than Lexis Nexis
• Limit by document type (editorial, review, cover story, etc.), location of story, name of publication
• Other databases available via Proquest to consider:
• Ethnic Newswatch (ethnic press in the U.S., searchable by target ethnic group)
• ABI Inform (business & industry periodicals)
  
  Library Catalog
• Locate books, media, government information, periodicals (by title) here at Oviatt Library.
• Search books, media, and government information by author, title, keyword
• Search periodicals by title of journal, newspaper, or magazine (good if you found something via Google and you are prompted to pay for it. Don’t do it!)
  
  Reference Resources
  Handbooks on conducting research, surveys, PR practices, etc.
  
  The rest of the PR Research Resources web site
  People, companies, places to find jobs, identify where to send a survey (also PR practice resources):
  Directories of publications, PR firms, etc.
  Biographical information sources
  PR web sites
  Business and industry sources
  Facts, opinions, statistics
  PR practice (background information related to markets, reference bookshelf items)
  Note public opinion polls web site could help with your survey assignment for examples of how to word questions on various topics
  Citation style guides has cheat sheets for citing in APA and MLA style, including how to cite articles you found in library databases