Media and Cultural Studies
Searching for Articles
This page is meant to serve as a resource guide for scholarly material that contain articles for your research. Why use articles in your research? Scholarly articles (from scholarly journals) are great resources as they are peer-reviewed, can cover a more tailored topic in your field of research, or, as in the case of literature reviews, provide an overview of existing research conducted in that field. With the wide variety of interdisciplinary and disciplinary scholarly journals available through our accessible databases, you're sure to find some articles on your topic of interest!
While you can always search for articles using the search bar on the library homepage, the results are pulled from a much larger, wider-reaching pool of resources that can sometimes not include content from all of the resources we have available! If you are looking for a different list of results or more specific articles, it's a good idea to go straight to the source, the actual database. Below are links to some of the databases that are likely to be most helpful for your research, both when you are just starting out and honing into more specific areas of research.
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of Media and Cultural Studies, you may find yourself needing a database that covers a more specific area of study outside the more general realm of Media Studies and Cultural Studies. The box in the lower right has a list of some of those databases. If what you're looking for isn't listed, try searching through our entire collection of databases, which can be navigated to using the Quick Links Box.
Database Search Tutorials
Need some tips on searching for articles on databases? Here are some guides from the source.
General Research Databases
A compiled list of more general, far-reaching databases to turn to in search of articles. These databases tend to be a good place to start your research or to get an idea of the published research on a topic of interest.
-
Academic Search PremierInterdisciplinary resource with popular, scholarly, and peer-reviewed articles and citations. Includes speeches, newspapers, and polls.
-
Access World News: Research Collection
International, national, regional, state, and local newspaper articles and video clips. Includes over a thousand international news sources from scores of countries on six continents, translated into English when written in other languages.
-
Alternative Press IndexCitations to international alternative, radical, and left periodicals, journals, newspapers, and magazine articles.
-
Art Full Text
The main database for research in art and art history. Includes both popular and academic titles.
-
Communication and Mass Media CompleteAccess to research in areas related to cultural studies, communication and mass media studies, rhetoric, speech, and digital, electronic and new media.
-
Film & Television Literature Index with Full TextCovers film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
-
Left IndexAccess to the literature on the left; emphasis on political, economic, social and culturally engaged scholarship, both academic and not. Other topics include labor movements, environment, race, sociology, art, philosophy, history, education and globalization.
-
MLA International Bibliography (Ebsco)
The primary database for literary and film scholarship.
-
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Note: The library has begun a subscription to Scopus as a replacement for our Web of Science subscription. Access to Web of Science, including the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, will end on December 31, 2025.
Provides article references for journals across the arts and humanities disciplines, including art and art history, archeology, architecture, dance, music, film and theater, history, humanities, literature, and religion. Offers cited reference searching.
-
JSTOR
Large collection of scholarly journals and books from all disciplines, with stronger coverage for the humanities and social sciences. Current issues from journals (the most recent 3-5 years) are generally not available in JSTOR.
-
Nexis Uni
Credible source for news, legal, and business sources that is updated daily. Includes access to print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs, as well as local, regional, national, and international newspapers, legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, business information on U.S. and international companies and executives. For Business Nexis Uni covers company and industry news, detailed company financial data, and includes major accounting journals. In Law, the database provides texts of federal and state court decisions, federal and state agency regulations, and law journal articles.
-
Project MUSEAccess to journals in the humanities and social sciences, covering literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and economics.
Subject-Specific Databases
A quick list of some of our more subject-specific databases that might serve as good resources after you have further developed your research topic or are curious about a more particular subject area of MCST.
-
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 Approximately 270 newspapers from most US states, including many rare and historically significant 19th century titles including Freedom's Journal and the first issue of The Aliened American.
-
Alternative Press Index Citations to international alternative, radical, and left periodicals, journals, newspapers, and magazine articles. Coverage: 1991-present.
-
Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) Index to scholarly journals, books, and conference papers in the social sciences and humanities covering the field of Latin American studies.
-
Independent Voices Independent Voices is a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
-
Listener Historical Archive The Listener was a weekly publication, established by the BBC in 1929 as the medium for reproducing radio - and later, television - programmes in print. It is our only record and means of accessing the content of many early broadcasts.
-
Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub Geographically and culturally diverse Minnesota newspapers published between 1850 and today. Provided by the Minnesota Historical Society.
-
Reader's Guide Retrospective Use to find articles from journals and popular magazines from 1890-1982.