LibGuides: Film, Media arts and Performance: Journals & databases

Film journals & magazines

It is important to scan the contents of key journals in your subject area on a regular basis to keep up to date with news and developments.

Some important journals/magazines are:

Sight and sound
This monthly magazine is published by the British Film Institute (BFI).
Use the 'A Performing Arts Periodicals Database (Proquest)' links on Library Search to access the full archive of issues from 1932 onwards.
Broadcast
Broadcast is a magazine for anyone in the business of producing, commissioning and distributing programmes and content. With up-to-the minute industry news, expert analysis and commentary, insider industry information and business critical data, Broadcast provides the insight to keep you at the forefront of the industry.
Use the ProQuest Central link to access the full archive of issues from 2010 onwards.
Studies in documentary film
This is a peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the history, theory, criticism and practice of documentary film.
Screen International
Screen International is a British film magazine covering the international film business.
Use the 'A Performing Arts Periodicals Database' link on Library Search to access the full archive of issues.
Dazed
Dazed magazine (previously known as Dazed and Confused) Dazed magazine champions radical fashion and youth culture, including film and TV.
Empire
Empire is film magazine. Access an archive of issues available online from 2007 - 2013.
Variety
This weekly publication is a good source of film reviews and news.
Available from 1972 onwards.
Velvet light trap
The Velvet Light Trap is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering film and media studies.

Photography journals & magazines

SOURCE
SOURCE publishes emerging photographic work and engages with the latest in contemporary photography through news, thoughtful features and reviews of the latest exhibitions and books from Ireland and the UK.
Aperture
Aperture features photographs by established and emerging photographers, as well as artists experimenting with photo-related media. Each issue is usually themed and includes writings by critics, scholars, photography practitioners, and others involved in the field of photography.
British Journal of Photography
Through the lenses of world-class photographers, British Journal of Photography explores rich and timely stories of art, culture, politics and society.
Adbusters - available in the library
'The journal of the mental environment' - Since 1989, our international collective of artists, designers, writers, musicians, poets, punks, philosophers and wild hearts has been smashing ads, fighting corruption and speaking truth to power.
Find Adbusters on level 2 of Adsetts Library.
Dazed
Dazed is a bi-monthly British style magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature.

Databases

Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Indexes over 260 international journals, with over 100 in full text. Subjects covered include dance, drama, film, television, theatre and performance art.
Art Full Text (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window
Art Full text contains 300 full text journals. Covers art, artists, history of art, design, graphic design, architecture, metalwork, jewellery, cultural policy, visual culture, museums, film.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR offers researchers the ability to retrieve high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated.
The journals archived in JSTOR span many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. JSTOR is a journal archive and does not include current or recent issues of journals. Because of JSTOR's archival mission, there is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issue and the back issues available in JSTOR.The following collections are available for users at SHU: Arts and Science I,II,III,IV and Arts and Sciences Complement. For lists of titles included in collections, please refer to the JSTOR website http://www.jstor.org/about/collection.list.html .
ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Full text articles from the journals, magazines, newsletters and conference proceedings published by the Association for Computing Machinery. News, analysis and academic research articles in a variety of topics in computing.
Art and Design databases on Proquest This link opens in a new window
A collection of ProQuest's databases covering the Art and Design, including The Vogue full text archive.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (EIMA) This link opens in a new window
Archive for studying film & entertainment industries from vaudeville/silent movies to 2000. Core US/UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theatre included, plus film fan magazines & music press titles. Sources in high-resolution, with indexing of all articles, covers, ads and reviews.
Design and Applied Arts Index (DAAI) This link opens in a new window
An international database on material in design and applied arts. It includes disciplines such as ceramics, glass, jewellery, wood, metalsmithing, graphic design, fashion and clothing, textiles, furniture, interior design, web design, animation, product design, industrial design, and others.
Film Index International This link opens in a new window
Film Index International is the definitive online resource focusing on entertainment films and personalities.
Produced in collaboration with the British Film Institute (BFI) it is based on the Summary of Film and Television (SIFT) database collated by the BFI over the past 70 years. In-depth indexing of over 118,000 films - from the first silent movies to the latest blockbusters - and biographical information for over 685,000 personalities. It also includes coverage of international film awards and prizes as well as searchable plot summaries and full cast and crew lists. Comprises 2 databases: films since 1930s; film personalities. Data includes directors, casts, crews, biographies of people in film industry. Film and person entries include lists of selected references to relevant journal articles.
Only 3 concurrent users permitted so try later if access refused.
Proquest Central This link opens in a new window
A multi-disciplinary full text database covering business, health and medical, social sciences, education , science and technology, including core titles in the performing and visual arts, history, religion, philosophy, and language and literature. It includes both scholarly journals as well as market research and industry reports, working papers and full-text dissertations.
Bloomsbury screen studies This link opens in a new window
Screen Studies takes users from script to screen and beyond. It contains a collection of award-winning screenplays, critical and contextual books on film from the late nineteenth century to the present, and an interactive timeline of cinema history. It contains over 300 screenplays and books and is updated annually. It is an important resource for academics and students engaged in research and learning around film history, theory and practice.
SAGE Research Methods Cases This link opens in a new window
Research Methods content is often theoretical and abstract and can be difficult to apply to real world scenarios. SAGE Research Methods Cases offers hundreds of case studies of actual research projects from many different disciplines to show how methods are applied. These cases add context to the more theoretical material found in SAGE Research Methods and underscore the nuances and decisions researchers face when designing projects.
Bloomsbury drama online This link opens in a new window
Drama Online includes new writers alongside the more iconic names in playwriting history. It provides contextual and critical background through scholarly works and practical guides. The collection supports theatre studies, literature courses and drama schools. Content ranges from the monologue; ensemble to one-person plays; comedy to tragedy; the historical to the contemporary; and from the highly political to the profoundly personal.
Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
Literature Online includes more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, 323 full-text literature journals, and other key criticism and reference resources, as well as access to the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) and MLA International Bibliography.
Includes biographies for 4,100 authors, and also online access to a number of reference works, such as The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms and The Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English . There are also links to relevant websites for primary texts and critical and biographical material.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides access to a collection of databases. The default search is of the Web of Science Core Collection, which includes the Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Conference Proceedings Citation Index and Emerging Sources Citation Index. This enables you to search scholarly journals, books and proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities and navigate the citation network.
By clicking on the drop-down menu next to ‘Search in:’ you can choose to search other databases: BIOSIS Citation Index (1969-2008), KCI-Korean Journal Database, Medline, Preprint Citation Index and SciELO Citation Index.
Dimensions This link opens in a new window
You will need to register for free to use this service
A very large multi-disciplinary database which enables you to search millions of articles, proceedings, preprints, books and chapters. Full text searching is possible for 70% of the publications. Dimensions can also be used to gain insight into research impact and attention through citations and altmetrics and to see analytical views of your search results. Please note that only the publications search is available.
SCOPUS This link opens in a new window
Scopus is a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary abstract and database curated by subject matter experts. Scopus is also a citation index, which means that the records in the database contain information on citations made in that publication and it links that information so you can identify which publications have cited that one, and how many times a publication has been cited.

Free online journals and websites

These open access journals are available for free on the web.

Jump Cut:a review of contemporary media
"Looking at media in its social and political context ... analyzing media in relation to class, race, and gender". This online journal can be searched for articles, reviews and bibliographies.
Senses of Cinema
An important online journal which can be searched.
Bright Lights Film Journal
An online film magazine featuring popular and academic articles about current and classic films from around the world
BFI ScreenOnline
'The definitive guide to Britain's film and TV history'

Newspaper articles

Newspapers are the best source for the very latest information. However, they are aimed at a general audience, and do not tend to be very technical or detailed. They are also certainly not peer-reviewed and can very often be erroneous or biased.

Nexis This link opens in a new window
Nexis is a major full text database for global news and business information. It gives access to over 35,000 sources, with more than 12,000 international news sources including UK daily and regional newspapers, current affairs magazines, and professional journals.

Alternative link - please note that, the first time you use this link, you will be asked to enter your first name and last name in order to access Nexis.
Nexis also includes 80 sources of company information, plus thousands of biographies of government officials, politicians, celebrities, investors and business contacts.