Psychology Research Guide

Types of news sources

There are different types of news sources you can find news from, including:

• Local newspapers (e.g. Bozeman Chronicle, Livingston Enterprise)
• National Newspapers (e.g. New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian (UK))
• News magazines (e.g. The Atlantic, Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker)
• News monitoring services & news feeds 

Types of News Articles

Subcategories of News and Opinion Articles from News or Opinion by Christine Photinos (permission to use via Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

News: The writer reports the news.

People’s opinions may appear as part of that reporting (“According to Mr. Smith…”), but the writer does not explicitly present his/her own views.

• News Article: An article written to inform readers about recent events. The author reports essential information (who/what/where/when/why/how).
• News Analysis: An article written to inform readers about recent events. The author reports and attempts to deepen understanding of recent events—for example, by providing background information and other kinds of additional context.
• Feature Article: Compared with news articles, feature articles are often more creative or exploratory and less focused on efficient delivery of essential information.
  • For example, while a news article may detail the most recent revelations about a politician’s extramarital affair, a feature article may offer in-depth reporting on a single aspect of the revelations, or the revelations may function as a “news peg” for the feature article’s more general exploration of infidelity.
  • Other types of news content that are generally categorized as “feature” writing include how-to-do-it articles (for example, how to shop for a new phone) and profiles (for example, an article about a movie actor starring in a recently-released film).
• Investigative Article: Reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, and may spend months or years researching and preparing a report.

Opinion: The writer shares his or her own views and explicitly seeks to persuade readers to adopt those views as their own.

• Editorial: An unsigned opinion piece that represents the views of the news organization’s editorial staff.
• Opinion piece: An opinion article by a staff columnist or guest columnist. (If a guest columnist, the writer’s credentials will almost always be identified.)
• Review: An evaluation of a book, movie, album, live performance, etc.

1. Go to the library homepage and click:
2. Find
3. Articles & Research Databases
4. By Format 
5. Choose News or other formats to find databases in that area

1. Enter search terms in the CatSearch box on the library homepage
2. Limit by Resource Type on the search results page:
3. Limit by subject, author, date and others, on the right:
4. Click on 'Full Text Available' if the library has access, 
5. Then follow the light blue links to get the full article from one of the listed databases.