Developing an Action Plan
Once you've pitched your story to your professor, it's time to get to work! Developing an action plan can make a large project more manageable by breaking it down into steps.
- It might be helpful to answer the six journalistic questions (Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?) as a guide for your action plan.
- Be sure to give yourself extra time to coordinate interviews or get photos.
- If you're not taking your own photos, be sure to look up usage rights as many photos require attribution when used in an educational context.
- Think about what kind of story you're trying to tell and what elements will make it more compelling for the reader and exciting for you to report on!
- Be sure to check back in with your action plan as reporting continues to see if you're on track.
How do I find background information?
Background information sources may contain information on many topics from multiple disciplines. You're probably already familiar with one source for general background information, Wikipedia.
To find this type of background information through UH Libraries, try searching one of the databases below with keywords related to your research question.
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowLibrary database that covers the most important and controversial issues of the day. Contains the full text of CQ Researcher, a weekly publication. Each issue provides a comprehensive overview and background essay, data tables and graphs, chronology, pro-con starter, and list of major research and advocacy groups. Includes extensive lists of sources and hot-linked footnotes throughout.
- Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new windowGale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is a full-text resource covering significant social issues. This database provides pro and con viewpoint articles, reference articles that provide context, full-text magazines, academic journals, and newspapers, primary source documents, government and organizational statistics, multimedia, including images and podcasts, and links to web resources.
- Gale eBooks This link opens in a new windowStandard, academic reference sources on a variety of topics.
Some background information sources are less general and instead cover a variety of topics related to a specific person or time period. These types of background information sources tend to be more detailed than the general sources described above.
To look for books or ebooks of background information on your topic, try searching keywords associated with your research topic in the library's catalog, specifying the search term as a subject, rather than title.
Finding Supporting Research
Using these academic databases can help you find more specific research, quickly. These databses cover a wide range of topics which can help you find new elements to tell your story.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowAcademic Search Complete is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 9,810 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
- Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new windowWith indexes and abstracts more than 600 journals, 300 of which also include full text articles, CMMC contains a Communication Thesaurus and comprehensive reference browsing as well as over 3,000 author biographies.
- Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new windowGale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is a full-text resource covering significant social issues. This database provides pro and con viewpoint articles, reference articles that provide context, full-text magazines, academic journals, and newspapers, primary source documents, government and organizational statistics, multimedia, including images and podcasts, and links to web resources.
What are statistics and data?
When doing research in any communications subject area, you may find it helpful to refer to data or statistics to support your arguments or provide you with more context. But what exactly are data and statistics? To start, it's important to note that these terms mean different things and are not meant to be used interchangeably. While data can be considered unique pieces of information that can be analyzed, statistics are often the result of doing that analysis to answer questions of "why" or "how."
To learn more about data and how to find it, check out our Finding Data research guide.
You can also watch the following video learn more about different types of data and how they might be used:
Company Research
- Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new windowMergent Intellect offers access to a wide range of business data -- private and public companies, U.S. and international based, industry news, facts and figures, executive contact information, industry profiles, and much more.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowAcademic Search Complete is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 9,810 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
- Business Source Complete This link opens in a new windowFull-text coverage plus indexing and abstracts for the most important scholarly business journals, including Harvard Business Review.
- Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new windowWith indexes and abstracts more than 600 journals, 300 of which also include full text articles, CMMC contains a Communication Thesaurus and comprehensive reference browsing as well as over 3,000 author biographies.