JOUR 350V/HIST 300 : History of Mass Media

Primary and Secondary Sources Explained

Although every project is different, researchers often use a combination of both primary and secondary resources. They gain context and background for their topic through secondary sources, and first-hand evidence through primary sources. Definitions and examples follow.  

Secondary Sources: 

• provide interpretation or analysis of a topic or event
• typically created after the time of an event
• use to better understand an event or topic, and/or to help interpret primary sources

Primary Sources:

• provide direct evidence of a particular topic
• typically created at the time of the event by someone who participated in/observed/lived through an event or experienced the topic first-hand
• may also be created later on as a memoir or autobiography, but still by someone with a direct connection to an event or topic
• use to gain a first-hand understanding of a topic or event

Example I: You are studying muckrakers ("reporter reformers"). You later narrow this to focus on the work of Jacob Riis.

Secondary Source Research:

1. You gain an overview of the muckraking movement through your textbooks (Chapter 16 of MiA and Chapter 6 of MttS).
   You learn more by reading the entry in the Library's online edition of the Dictionary of American History. This background essay includes information on various prominent muckrakers, including Ida Tarbell and Jacob Riis. In the bibliography, you learn about other works on muckraking including Robert Miraldi's The Muckrakers: Evangelical Crusaders. 
2. After looking up the call number for Miraldi's book, you decide to search for books on Jacob Riis himself and find several books, including Bonnie Yochelson's Rediscovering Jacob Riis. 
3. Finally, you look for articles and other information concerning Riis and the impact of his work using the Library's America: History and Life database including Edward O'Donnell's article: "Pictures Vs. Words? Public History, Tolerance, and the Challenge of Jacob Riis." 

Primary Source Research:

1. Having read a lot about Jacob Riis in secondary sources, you decide you want to focus on his book from 1890: How the Other Half Lives. 
2. You find out that Riis published his introductory work on this topic while on assignment for Scribner's magazine in the late 1890s. You learn that actual copies of Scribner's are available in Zuhl Library and decide to use these as one primary source.
3. You also find out the the Library has a copy of How the Other Half Lives and decide to use that as another primary source.

Example II: You are studying the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and '70s and later decide to focus on the language of the movement as used by Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson.

Secondary Source Research:  

1. You read about New Journalism from the 1960s/'70s in the "Media in Transition" chapter of your MiA textbook.
   You learn more about this movement and two of its practitioners, Truman Capote and Tom Wolfe, in the Library's online St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. You decide to look for more information in the Library's catalog.
2. In the Library's catalog, you find several different books on New Journalism including James Murphy's New Journalism: A Critical Perspective. You become interested in Thompson and Wolfe after running across Marc Weingarten's The Gang that Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion and the New Journalism Revolution.
3. You also find articles on Thompson and Wolfe in Library databases such as Academic Search Premier, America: History and Life, and Communication and Mass Media Complete. It occurs to you that some of these articles might also be considered primary sources since they provide first-hand reaction to New Journalism work as it was published (for example, James Green's article "Gonzo" from the 1975 Journal of Popular Culture. 

Primary Source Research:

1. Now that you've read a good  bit about New Journalism, you are particularly interested in the writing style of this movement and decide to focus on the language of New/Gonzo journalism as used by Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson in social commentary.
2. You find copies of two works that interest you, Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: a Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream and Tom Wolfe's Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby and use examples from these as primary sources in your paper.

Example III: You have read about the Frontier Press as well as the Spanish-Language Press of the Southwest in Chapter 10 of your MiA textbook and decided you would like to learn more about the role of Spanish-language newspapers. You later decide to focus on the Spanish language press in the Las Cruces area and their role.

Secondary Source Research:

1. In the Library's catalog you find the books Outsiders in 19th-Century Press History: Multicultural Perspectives as well as Doris Myer's book Speaking for Themselves: Neomexicano Cultural Identity and the Spanish Language Press, 1880-1920.
2. You have found similar articles in the Library's America: History and Life database, using examples of papers from Texas. You are interested in these authors' ideas and think you might want to apply them to the Spanish language press in New Mexico.
3. You go back to the Library's catalog and find the book Spanish Language Newspapers in New Mexico, 1880-1958, which helps you identify newspapers you could use to further explore this topic.

Primary Source Research:

1. You have developed your broader thesis statement about the role of the Spanish language press in New Mexico and have learned about several different important papers.
2. You find out that the Library has early issues of several Spanish-language papers from the Las Cruces area (El Eco del Valle [1905-1917], La Estrella [1911-1936] and the Independent Democrat [1892-1898]) and decide to use writings from these newspapers as primary sources for your paper.