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:

If you would like to learn some tips and tricks for searching in Newsstream, have a look at this guide on getting started.

The BBC has put together a general overview of the media in many (not all) countries, listing the top 10 or so print, radio and tv sources along with other relevant agencies and newswires. An example is the Media Profile for Nigeria. 

These Media Profiles overviews can give you a bit of insight into a country’s cultural and political context, which has a massive impact on the way that news is produced and consumed, which can in turn enrich your understanding of what you encounter.