POP CULTURE: FINDING SOURCES

RESEARCHING POPULAR CULTURE AND MASS MEDIA

WHAT IS POP CULTURE

Definition - "Popular culture is the accumulated store of cultural products such as music, literature, art, fashion, dance, film, television, and radio that are consumed primarily by non-elite groups such as the working and lower classes (as well as substantial segments of the middle class)."

From The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology.

POP CULTURE WEB RESOURCES

These websites offer resources for researching the cultural activities, commercial products and media that are aimed at or reflect the tastes of the general population.

OFF-CAMPUS LIBRARY DATABASE ACCESS

For off-campus access to the library databases, you will need to enter either your 14-digit library barcode or sign in with your MyLonestar email address and password. Once you have clicked on the link to a library database, you will be prompted to log in.

FIND SOURCES FOR POP CULTURE RESEARCH

The library databases in this list are helpful for finding topic overviews - general introductions with background information about a topic. Topic overviews can help give you perspective on the history of the issue and generate keywords and subtopics.

CQ Researcher
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(CQ Press) Full-text, balanced, comprehensive journalistic reports and analysis of current and controversial issues of the day.
Credo Reference
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(Credo) Includes materials from over 650 full-text reference books on a variety of topics in higher education, including art, business, history, languages, literature, science, criminal justice, and political science.
Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
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(Gale) Full text on controversial social issues from books, statistical reports, and news publications.
Issues & Controversies
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(Facts on File) Full-text articles from different points of view on important issues in today's news, plus statistics and images

The library databases in this list are helpful for finding both current and historical newspaper articles.

Newspaper Source Plus
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(EBSCO) Selected full-text from 30 US national and international newspapers and 200 regional papers, plus TV & radio news transcripts.
Proquest Historical Newspapers
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(ProQuest) Over 30 million digital pages of seventeen American newspapers dating back to the 18th century.
U.S. Major Dailies
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(ProQuest) Full text from the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and the New York Times.

Magazine and journal articles usually provide more details about a topic. Journal articles are written by experts or specialists in a field and may report the findings of new studies on a topic.

MasterFILE Complete
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(EBSCO) Offers the highest quality collection of popular full-text magazines, reference books, videos and other sources covering virtually every subject area. Helping patrons find relevant content has never been easier. (High school/pre-college).

MasterFILE Complete includes:

All three major U.S. news weeklies
Balanced viewpoints across the political spectrum
Trusted consumer information
Current news about science and technology
The top sports and leisure magazines
Diverse perspectives for your community
A rich selection of home and living content, including regional publications
Popular music, entertainment and celebrity magazines

MasterFILE Complete also includes more than 70,000 full-text biographies and a vast image collection of more than 2 million photos, maps and flags.
Academic Search Complete
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(EBSCO) A scholarly multi-disciplinary database that provides full text, indexing, and abstracts, videos and images from journals, magazines and newspapers. Full text of articles from 6500+ journals, magazines and newspapers, plus image collections.

Content Includes
3,719 active, full-text, non-open access journals and magazines
3,218 active, full-text, peer-reviewed, non-open access journals
1,410 active, full-text, peer-reviewed, non-open access journals with no embargo
2,444 active, full-text, non-open access journals indexed in Web of Science or Scopus

Streaming video databases often contain video clips and full documentaries with in-depth investigations or alternate perspectives on current events topics.

Academic Video Online: Premium
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(Alexander Street Press) Full-length videos on various topics, documentaries, instructional materials and limited historical news reports.
Films on Demand
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(Films Media Group) High-quality, educational streaming video from companies such as Films for the Humanities, BBC, and PBS. Browse a selection of Business & Economics videos.
Kanopy
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(Kanopy) Classic cinema, independent films, and top documentaries in streaming video. Includes Media Education Foundation Collection. App available from Apple, Google, and Roku.

Books can be great sources of in-depth information and details about a topic. You can read eBooks 24/7 and take advantage of the automatic citation and download features in these databases.

Ebook Central
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(ProQuest) Over 100,000 ebook titles covering a full range of academic topics. General reference works are also included. Read on your mobile device using Adobe Digital Editions.

You can also use this database on your tablet or phone and download books for offline reading.
EBSCO eBook Collection
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(EBSCO) Search complete electronic books. Set up a free account to download to your device. Visit EBSCO's instructions on how to read on a mobile device using Adobe Digital Editions.
Gale eBooks
(formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library)

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(Gale Cengage Learning) Dozens of complete reference books on arts, business, education, history, law, literature, sciences, and technology, including the popular sets of Short Stories for Students, Novels for Students, Poetry for Students, and Drama for Students.

The websites in this list are librarian-approved for up-to-date and reliable information about current events.

Brookings Institution Topics
Research topics covering foreign policy, economics, policy, and more, from The Brookings Institution, an independent, nonprofit public research organization.
Frontline
PBS Frontline offers in-depth discussion of controversial issues in films, podcasts, and long-form journalism.
Gallup News
Find public opinion polls and information on a range of current issues affecting the U.S. and the world.
Pew Research Center
Reports and data on public opinionin the United States relating to politics, media, social trends, religion, and more.