Please refer to your assignment instructions for additional requirements and details.
You need a minimum of four peer-reviewed articles to complete your assignment.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It can take years to get published, so you may need to explore related areas of research rather than your specific, more current topic. For instance, although there had been research on public reactions to pandemics like H1N1 or Ebola for years, when Covid first happened, there was no peer-reviewed sources on the topic yet. If you wanted to research reactions to Covid at that time, you would have had to use older research on previous pandemics to inform what was then a new area of investigation.
Useful databases for finding articles for this class include:
For additional options, visit the Library's Find a Database list.
Database Keyword Searcing Tips:
Examples combining these techniques:
("social media" OR Facebook OR Twitter OR Instagram) AND "content analysis" AND (COVID OR SARS OR H1N1 OR pandemic OR ebola)
(news OR journalism) AND (COVID OR SARS OR H1N1 OR pandemic OR ebola)
Limit Results
When searching, use the search facets to the left of results to limit to peer-reviewed (scholarly) journals.
Also limit by publication date (e.g., 2012-2022) to find more recent works.
Find the Most Relevant Studies
Aim to locate the four most relevant articles on your topic. To do this, try the following:
Final Two Articles - Checklist
The four articles you use in your assignment should meet the following criteria:
In your assignment, be sure to reference all your sources in APA format.
Citations should follow this example:
Thirsk, L. M., Stahlke, S., Perry, B., & Gordon, B. (2022). #Morethanavisitor: Experiences of COVID-19 visitor restrictions in Canadian long-term care facilities. Family Relations, 71(4), 1408-1427. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12712
For more information and examples, visit the Library's APA Citation Guide.
If doing a content analysis of user comments on news stories, try searching and browsing individual news websites like CBC News and the Edmonton Journal.
The following databases allow you to search across news stories in multiple news sources at one time:
Need immediate research help? Have a quick question?
Use Library Chat to consult online with a librarian who can help with finding and citing appropriate sources.
Not finding any articles on your topic?
Email Nicolle to set up an appointment in person, by phone, or video conferencing with the Sociology subject librarian.
Need writing help?
Access the Writing Centre during their drop-in hours - online or in-person - or schedule an appointment with a writing tutor by going to the Writing Centre's services page at https://library.macewan.ca/writing-centre/services.
Questions about the assignment and how to do a content analysis?
Contact your instructor.