TVR 13100: Media Writing

About this Guide

The guide is a pathfinder to:
  • primary and secondary media resources (ads, scripts, and transcripts)
  • databases used for researching information (background information such as data)
  • sites for media anaylsis (reviews and academic journal articles)

Advertisements

Primary: find existing ads (current ads can be found on YouTube or Google: video)
  • Ad*Access   Historic collection from Duke U.
  • All-American Ads NC988.5 .A1
    Book series that compiles ads across decades.
  • Clio Awards Ads that won a Clio Award.
  • American Memory: Advertising Historic collection from the Library of Congress
  • Prelinger Archives
    Over 48,000 films, over 90 old time radio audio clips, 2,000 game videos, 250 independent news clips and much more (including educational films, advertisements and industry films) Historic ads
Secondary: databases
Ad placement directories: online library databases
Ad data:
  • Alexa: the web information company
    Alexa provides data such as rankings on websites.  Users can insert a URL and click "Lookup Sites" to view data.  The "Top Sites" tab has three viewing tabs: Global, By Country, and By Category.
  • Audit Bureau of Circulations
    Organization that audits circulation statistics and generates reports to assist advertisers and publishers with media sales. Current reports require membership; see the "Free Reports" in the index to the right.
  • MRI+ (MediaMark Reporter)
    A tool for market research, with information on demographics, product and brand usage. Provides summary tables of key audience and product data from a national sample of adults (18 years an older). To use this database you must create an account using your valid IC email address and create a password. Validate your account through the e-mail they send you. After you login select MediaMark Reporter at the bottom of the page.
  • Nielsen TV Ratings from Zap2IT
    Ratings for various cable, syndicated, and sports programs on television. Data can be viewed weekly or by season and sorted by total households or total viewers.
  • New Strategist publications  (book series)
  • SBRnet (Sports Business Research Network)
    Full text of current market research and industry news covering all facets of the sports industry: sports equipment sales, sports participation, sports broadcasting, sports sponsorship, sports market information, and sports sponsorship. SBRnet also has buyTRACK, by Harris Interactive, a tracking study of sporting goods purchasing habits on the Internet.
  • Technorati
    Leading search engine for blogs and social media content.  Publishes the State of the Blogosphere report that analyzes trends in blogging.
  • Trendwatching.com
    TRENDWATCHING.COM and its 3,000+ trendspotters scan the US, Canada, European Union, Japan, South Korea, India, South Africa, Australia, Brazil and 50 other nations & regions for hot, emerging consumer trends and related new business ideas. Free monthly bulletin briefings are archived back to first issue (November 2002). 
  • TV Dimensions REF HE 8700.8 .T917
    Covers a wide variety of topics having to do with television viewership and programming including advertising, revenue, trends in viewing, etc. Published annually. Library retains 3 years in Reference.
  • Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB)
    Non-for-profit organization that promotes local television stations to advertisers.
  • U.S. Census Bureau
    Social, demographic and economic information. Includes the American FactFinder resource. USA Counties is a subdvision that contains over 6,500 data items.

Broadcast Journalism

Primary: transcripts from library databases
  • LexisNexis Academic Select the News >> TV & Radio transcripts. Here is a short video to show you how.
  • General OneFile
    Current journal and news information in humanities, education, business, science, art, politics, economics, social sciences, law, health care, computers, technology and environmental issues.
  • Newspaper Source
    Provides access to both national and international newspapers, and contains abstracts and indexing from the following papers (cover to cover): the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today. Abstracting and indexing for all titles and full text for the Christian Science Monitor begins 1/1/95. Coverage includes everything except obituaries (exclusive of famous people), sports tables, ads/classifieds, stock prices, and weather. Additional data provided by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News: full text articles from 105 contributor newspapers. Additional data also provided by Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service: full text articles from 40 contributor newspapers. Total coverage includes over 500,000 articles.
  • if you're looking for a particular station, from the library's homepage go to the Articles tab. From the "Search for Journals" box, search a particular station.  Watch this brief video.

Primary: selected transcripts from websites:
  • C-SPAN
    Non-profit corporation funded by cable and satellite affiliates that provides public access to daily political events such as congressional debates.  See also: C-SPAN's Video Library (programs from 1987+)
  • National Public Radio (NPR)
    A privately funded non-for-profit member organization, NPR.org produces news, talk, and entertainment programs.  Member stations offer national and local programming.
  • Open Vault (WGBH)
    Free online streaming video of historically significant videos produced by WGBH. Includes transcripts. On a separate site is the WGBH American Experience television series; many of the the episodes can be viewed online.
Secondary: Articles about Broadcast Journalism:Secondary: Websites - Media Analysis:
  • Journalism.org: Project for Excellence in Journalism: Understanding News in the Information Age
    Site is provided by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists. Includes a link to The State of the News Media Annual Report as well as other research reports and analysis.
  • On the Media
    On the Media is a National Public Radio Program that reflects on how the media covered events in the weekly news. It also discusses issues in the media such as freedom of information .
  • Poynter Institute
    An online site about reporting, writing, and editing.   Links to the top story of the day, along with links to the most recent articles submitted by various contributors and Institute staff members. Poynter's News University offers free self-directed courses such as Newsgathering Law & Liability: A Guide for Reporting or Watching TV News: How to be a smarter viewer.

Screenplays, TV shows, and documentaries

Primary: screenplays
  • American Film Scripts Online
    Film scripts with detailed, fielded information on related scenes, characters and people. From Alexander Street Press.
  • Motion picture plays  The library collects screenplays. The subject for screenplays in the catalog is "Motion Picture Plays"!
  • Script City
    This is a commercial site where TV and film scripts can be purchased.  IC library has purchased some scripts so search the catalog first.   You can also recommend a purchase.
Secondary: articles about screenplays:Reviews

Press Releases

Primary: Press Releases group file through the library
  • LexisNexis Academic   You can access wires under "News" >> "Newspapers and Wires".  You can search for a particular wire under the "Sources tab".   Here is a short video to show you how.
Primary: access directly
Go to a company site and check for news
  • Look for the News information on a company's site for PR releases.  Here is a short video to show you how.

Contact Us

Picture: Cathy Michael
Communications Librarian
(607) 274-1293

Selected Short Films

The library purchases Short films (fiction and nonfiction & animated):

Cite it with Noodlebib

Noodlebib guides you through the required data entry for citation in the MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian styles. It takes care of punctuation, alphabetization and formatting, producing a polished source list for import into Word.

Writing Help

Writers Guild of America

Loading ...