News is information and commentary on contemporary affairs taken to be publicly important (Schudson 2012).
News is a popular source. Popular sources are typically written by journalists to inform or entertain a general audience, whereas academic sources, also called scholarly sources, are written by experts in a field, people who have advanced degrees in a given discipline.
This chart compares popular sources and academic sources and their features:
|
Popular Sources |
Academic/Scholarly (including peer-reviewed) |
| Content |
Current events; general interest articles
|
Research results/reports; reviews of research (review articles); book reviews
|
| Purpose |
To inform, entertain, or elicit an emotional response |
To share research or scholarship with the academic community |
| Author |
Staff writers, journalists, freelancers |
Scholars/researchers |
| Audience |
General public |
Scholars, researchers, students |
| Review |
Staff editor |
Editorial board made up of other scholars and researchers. Some articles are peer-reviewed |
| Citations |
May not have citations, or may be informal (ex. according to... or links) |
Bibliographies, references, endnotes, footnotes |
| Frequency |
Weekly/monthly |
Quarterly or semi-annually |
| Ads* |
Numerous ads for a variety of products |
Minimal, usually only for scholarly products like books |
| Examples on Publisher Site |
Washington Post; Time; New York Times; Aerospace Engineering Blog |
The Aeronautical Journal; International Journal of Aerospace Engineering; IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine |
| Examples in Library Databases (Requires GCC Login) |
Washington Post; Time; New York Times |
The Aeronautical Journal; International Journal of Aerospace Engineering; Nature |
Text and chart adapted from UTexas Libguide.