Hekman Library: COMM305: Persuasion and Propaganda: Home

Liaison Librarian

Sarah McClure Kolk

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Contact:

Office: HL407
(for 2023-2024 academic year)

Subjects: Art & Art History, Communication, English, Gender Studies, Music, Philosophy

Getting Started with Research for COMM305!

Need a review of Hekman Library basics? Check out this "Get Connected" guide or browse our How-to playlist on Youtube.
If you're off-campus, remember to start at the library homepage when connecting to databases and ebooks, so you'll be recognized as a Calvin user (when you're prompted to login, enter your Calvin username and passphrase).
Struggling with citations? For more help, see the library's longer Citation 101 guide or try using Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab)

Researching a Speech and Social Movement: Tips

For this assignment, you've been asked to do research on your chosen speech from the Voices of Democracy website: "In addition to the interpretative essay that accompanies your chosen speech, please research 5 additional sources that provide information on the context, the social movement, the speech’s impact, and/or the communication strategies employed." (from the assignment description but emphases mine).

Be creative in researching different aspects of the speech (see bolded aspects above).
Search Communication and Mass Media Complete (the core COMM database) to research the rhetorical strategies and context of the speech and/or social movement.
Use SearchStart and/or at least 2-3 other specific databases to research the speech, speaker, social movement, historical period, and/or the issue/cause itself.
For background or historical research, books or subject encyclopedias might also be helpful.
Follow the citation trails! Start first with the "Suggested Resources" bibliography connected to the Voices of Democracy interpretative essay on your speech, but always look at cited references or bibliographies in other sources too, to find more related research.

Selected Books at Hekman

Encyclopedia of American Social Movements

Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines (2nd ed.)

Social Movements and Activism in the USA

Library Catalog Search Tips

For broad background on social movements, try one of these catalog subject headings:

Social movements

Social movements > United States

Or, look for the subject heading related to specific movements or causes, for example:

Women's rights > United States

Civil rights > United States > History

Independent Voices

Independent Voices
Independent Voices is an open access 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.

Recommended Databases

Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest)
Sociological Abstracts indexes the international literature of sociology, and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Provides access to the latest research in sociology, social work, and other social and behavioral sciences. Includes citations (and abstracts since 1974) from nearly 2,000 journals, serials, conference papers, books, and dissertations.

Subjects include community development, demography and human biology, family and social welfare, social psychology and group interactions, welfare services, and women's studies.

Note: When searching this database, you are also searching Social Services Abstracts and Sociology Research Database.
Communication & Mass Media Complete
Communication & Mass Media Complete offers access to journals covering communication, mass media, linguistics, discourse, rhetoric, sociolinguistics, communication theory, language, logic, organizational communication and other closely related fields of study.
MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), the MLA International Bibliography is the definitive index for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present. International in scope, it includes citations to journal articles, books, articles in books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations, with links to full text in JSTOR, Project MUSE, and other resources.
In addition to its research coverage, the MLA database also includes two important scholarly search tools: the MLA Directory of Periodicals and the MLA Thesaurus, a proprietary, searchable collection of thousands of subject terms and personal names used in indexing the bibliography. Learn more about the MLA International Bibliography database, its features and tools, and advanced searching options in these video tutorials.
ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials (EBSCO)
ATLA is an index of journal articles, essays, and book reviews in the areas of biblical studies, world religions, church history, and religious perspectives on social issues, among other topics. The database provides coverage from 1949 to the present and retrospective indexing for some journals as far back as the nineteenth century.

Alumni Access
Alumni of the university and seminary have access to ATLASerials by logging in to their library account using their Alumni library card barcode number.
Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)
Historical Abstracts is the definitive index of literature covering world history (excluding the United States and Canada) from the 15th century to the present. Indexing thousands of journals in over 40 languages, it is an invaluable bibliographic database for history students. Topics include military history, women’s history, history of education, and much more.
Political Science Complete (EBSCO)
Political Science Complete is a full-text research database covering political topics with a worldwide focus, including international relations, political theory and comparative politics.
With hundreds of full-text journals, reference books and thousands of conference papers, Political Science Complete is a valuable resource for political science students, researchers and government institutions. Subjects covered include: comparative politics, humanitarian issues, international relations, law and legislation, non-governmental organizations, and political theory.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a database consisting of full-text articles from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals from nearly every discipline taught at Calvin. Coverage for each journal begins with the first volume, with coverage ending for most titles three and five years ago. A growing number of journals now have coverage up to the present.
APA PsycINFO (ProQuest)
Provided by the American Psychological Association, APA PsycINFO offers access to international literature in psychology and related disciplines including psychiatry, education, business, medicine, nursing, pharmacology, law, linguistics, and social work. When you search APA PsycINFO, you are also searching the ProQuest Psychology Database and the APA PsycARTICLES database.

Finding More Sources by Citations

Use this handout to help you know how to track down sources from citations you find in bibliographies:

Citation Chasing
This handout explains how to read article and book citations, and then determine if you have access to them at Hekman.