Research Guides: Media &amp; Communication: MCOM 315 Media & Society

Media & Society Wordpress Site

MCOM 315 Course Site
Instructions, examples and more for your projects in this course.

Primary History & Culture Sources

As always, use discretion before relying on websites. Verify that the source is what it says it is by searching for the title elsewhere. When in doubt: check with your professor.

Avalon Project From Yale Law: Covers law, history, and diplomacy.
British History Online A "digital library of key printed primary and secondary sources for the history of Britain and Ireland, with a primary focus on the period between 1300 and 1800."
Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1925 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
Document Bank of Virginia (DBVa) Library of Virginia's initiative to provide students with primary resources from Virginia. CONTENT WARNING: Materials in the Library of Virginia’s collections contain historical terms, phrases, and images that are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical and mental ability; and gender and sexual orientation.
EuroDocs From BYU: Primary European documents covering prehistory to modern Europe.
Founders Online Over 184,000 searchable documents, fully annotated, from the authoritative Founding Fathers Papers projects.
Freedmen's Bureau Search Portal | Smithsonian primary sources on topics related to slavery and Reconstruction in the papers of the United States Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau
Hanover College Historical Texts Collection Ancient and modern, North American and global. Many letters and personal accounts.
Hansard: British Parliamentary Archives "Produced from digitised editions of Commons and Lords Hansard, the Official Report of debates in Parliament."
Historypin "A place for people to share photos and stories, telling the histories of their local communities." Hit or miss, but worth checking.
Internet Archive (archive.org) A non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
Library of Congress: Digital Collections Access to print, pictorial and audio-visual collections and other digital services
Old Bailey Online A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
Online Library of Liberty A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets.
Pamplin Historical Park and the Museum of the Civil War Soldier: Archives Artifacts and images, a large archive of documents dating from the 18th to 20th Centuries – including the famed Wiley Sword Collection
Primary Source Sets | Digital Public Library of America From the Digital Public Library of America. Explore the rest of the site, too.
Times Machine (NYT Archive) Over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared. If it asks for a login, sign up for a free account through SU's New York Times subscription.
Learn & Explore | Virginia Museum of History & Culture Browse through 16,000 years of Virginia history by topic or time period.
Virginia Memory Online exhibits from the Library of Virginia, which maintains vast and varied collections that tell the history of the commonwealth and its people
Virginia Untold Library of Virginia's Virginia Untold provides access to pre-1865 African American history and genealogy found in primary sources
World Digital Library A joint project of the U.S. Library of Congress and the U.N. Books, manuscripts, maps, and other primary materials, from 8000 BCE to 2000 CE.

Google Better!

Google Advanced Search
Search more authoritative domains like .gov or .edu, or limit your search by date.

Fair Use

University of Texas: Fair Use for Students
UT has summarized fair use best practices for students who use multimedia in projects.

The Fair Use provision in US copyright law states that you can use copyrighted material in your projects and papers. Learn how to do it legally, and how much is too much.

YOU MUST STILL CITE EVERY SOURCE

Finding Photos & Images

Creative Commons Search for public domain images and audio.
flickr
Google Advanced Image Search Under "usage rights," select Creative Commons.
Library of Congress Photos, Prints, Drawings You won't find images for every topic here but what is available is good.
Wikimedia Commons
Social Welfare History Image Portal Photographs, pamphlets, artifacts and documents chronicling the history of the nation's response to human need.
Getty Open Content images of artworks from the J. Paul Getty Museum available for free download under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)

Miscellaneous Sources

Smithsonian
Official website of the Smithsonian, the world's largest museum and research complex, with 19 museums, 9 research centers, and affiliates around the world.
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
The world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.
U.S. National Archives
Holds the records of the United States Federal government. On-line access to art works, census data, U.S. legal manuscripts, the Federal Register and more.