Communication & Mass Media Resources
What is background information?
Background information can help you learn more about your topic and develop your research question and approach.
Common examples of background information sources are dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, and other reference sources that help give you a general overview of a topic. You may find these sources by searching our library catalog or through a library database.
Background information usually adds one or more of the following benefits to your research process:
- introduces you to important terms or concepts,
- points toward other works on your research topic,
- describes common ideas other scholars already have about the subject.
For best results, seek background information early in the research process. That way, you can use what you learn about foundational concepts to make changes to your research question or plan for next steps.
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.