This entry discusses the types of sources and their use in the news process, ethical and legal aspects of sourcing, power in journalist-source relations, the use of online sources, journalists’ verification of sources, and audiences’ views on journalistic sources. Evaluating Digital Sources Because so much information is now available online, it’s important to know how to navigate digital sources versus print sources. Today, almost every print source has a digital edition (e.g., ebooks, online newspapers), and some academic journals only publish digitally.

Understanding the Context

However, despite the many credible digital sources available today, there are still many ... A source is a person or book that provides information for a news story or for a piece of research. Military sources say the boat was heading south at high speed. Check out this short video (2:23) from Suffolk County Community College Library to understand how primary, secondary, and tertiary sources vary by discipline.

Key Insights

Beyond definitions of source types, this video provides useful examples of what would be primary, secondary and tertiary sources for research questions in different disciplines. There are many types of sources commonly used in research. These include books, journal articles, and newspapers. Secondary sources are books, articles, web sites, etc. that people write using the information from primary sources.

Final Thoughts

Articles in Business Source Complete, and industry reports in IBISWorld, for instance, are secondary sources, because they embed data from primary sources to support their own secondary interpretation of trends. Define sources. sources synonyms, sources pronunciation, sources translation, English dictionary definition of sources. n. 1. A person or thing from which something comes into being or is derived or obtained: alternative sources of energy; the source of funding for the...