News outlets of all kinds can be incredibly useful for academic research. Though these ‘non scholarly’ sources might not have the type of theory and in-depth research found in peer-reviewed articles, news media can give you an insight into public dialogue about an issue as well as data about when certain things happened.

Market researchers might find company information and market context, sociologists might find evidence of culture, and media researchers and historians can find out how different locations and organisations report on the same event. It can be incredibly interesting to see how an issue or event was discussed at the time it happened: was it front page news? What kinds of words or phrases were used? What kinds of advertisements ran next to it?

If you are thinking of researching your topic in the news, here are a few places to start:

Newspapers can be useful as both primary and secondary sources of information. As well as providing commentary on events, such as  a company posting their financial returns or launching a new product, newspaper articles can provide insight on how an event or incident was reported in the media.  Newspapers can also be a good source of current awareness to find out what is happening in a particular industry or market, not just in the UK, but  around the globe.