LibGuides: Journalism, PR and Media: News

Researching the news

If you want to research news sources, using a database on this page will be the best place to start.

Nexis is the best newspaper database for searching global, national and local news. It has coverage from the 1990s onwards, and allows you to do systematic searching, and to save/export your results.

<<<< Use the menu on the left to choose which type of database you need.

Choose Current news if you want to research from 1990s onwards. For anything older you will need to use one of the Archives.

Photo by Juliana Malta on Unsplash

Current news

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.
Proquest Central This link opens in a new window
Use Proquest Central to search news and magazine sources.

**Use 'advanced search' to limit your results to just newspapers and/or magazines.**
FT.com This link opens in a new window
Online access to the Financial Times newspaper. Includes an 8 year searchable archive of news articles, as well as a browsable version of today's newspaper (available in 5 different editions: UK, Europe, US, Asia and Mid East).
If you have problems accessing Full text on Ft.com.
- go to Ft.com
- go to My Account and click on Sign out
- close your browser - to clear all your logins
- come back here follow this link to login again.
Regional Business News This link opens in a new window
This database contains (mostly) full text articles from regional US business magazines and trade publications.
It uses the same search interface at Business Source Premier. The database is searchable by keywords, or browseable by publication title.
Note: geographic coverage is limited to USA only.
Cross search available with all EBSCO databases, select Choose Databases and tick those you wish to add to your search.
Keesing's World News Archive This link opens in a new window
Keesing's World News Archive is a web-based database comprising more than 95,000 articles, first from 1931-87 as Keesing's Contemporary Archives, and then as Keesing's Record of World Events from 1987 to the present. SHU has full access to the last 12 months.

UK newspapers archives

Gale News Vault This link opens in a new window
Cross-searches SHU's collection of Gale historical newspapers, comprising Newspapers from British Library from 1757 to 1950 and The Times, Financial Times, Daily Mail, Economist, TLS Historical Archives. With the power to search millions of digitized facsimile pages, Gale NewsVault provides an unparalleled window to the past.
Uses search interface with enhanced features such as thumbnail images; browse newspapers by title and by place of publication; full-text searching with hit-term highlighting; read newspapers cover to cover in full screen, using an advanced image viewer; save print and bookmark; grab, pan, zoom and crop images; and cross-browse all newspapers published on the same date.
Times Digital Archive 1785-2019 This link opens in a new window
Search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London), using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page.
The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.
Contains scanned image and PDF of articles from the Times newspaper.
Can search for specific date or keyword search.
Includes Google search for related images in a keyword search and has link to Merrian-Webster Collegiate Dictionary during search session.
Sunday Times Digital Archive 1822-2006 This link opens in a new window
Since 1822, The Sunday Times has provided thoughtful analysis and commentary on the week's news and society at large, including Murder, theatre, sport and politics. With more than 800,000 pages, The Sunday Times Digital Archive is a gateway to the greatest crimes, careers and culture of the last 180 years.
Daily Mail Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
The Daily Mail Historical Archive (1896-2004) comprises 6.7 million + articles in a fully searchable and browseable digital format, with advertisements, news stories and images.
Guardian, The (1821-2003) and Observer, The (1791-2003) This link opens in a new window
The Guardian and The Observer, provide facts, first-hand accounts, and opinions on political, business, sports, literary, and entertainment events for the past 200 years. Full text with article images in PDF format.
Financial Times Historical Archive (1888-2016) This link opens in a new window
The Financial Times Historical Archive (1888-2016) is a facsimile run of the world's most authoritative daily business newspaper. It includes over 790,000 pages, including Special Supplements and the FT Magazine. Browse individual issues and search every word of the text. Online Help is provided
The Financial Times Historical Archive is a complete searchable facsimile run of the authoritative daily business newspaper from its inception in 1888 to 2016. There are approx. 790,000 pages comprising the most detailed foreign affairs coverage of any European daily newspaper; the authoritative Lex column on corporate and financial matters; access to thousands of daily prices/stock indexes and currency tables, and to the FT Magazine. Helpful Essays about the newspaper are provided, plus comprehensive online Help and the ability to print, save, bookmark and e-mail search results. The FT archive is also cross-searchable with other newspapers via Gale NewsVault, including The Times and The Economist historical archives
British Newspapers 1600-1950 (via NewsVault) This link opens in a new window
The most comprehensive digital historic newspaper archive.
Includes 17-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers Includes 19th Century British Library Newspapers 3 million pages of historic newspapers, newsbooks & ephemera National & Regional papers from British Isles

Global newspaper archives

ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
A collection of historic newspapers including The Guardian (1821-2003); Observer (1791-2003); New York Times (1851-2010); Times of India (1838-2004). News, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, photos and advertisements in downloadable pdf format.
Washington Post, The (1877-1997) This link opens in a new window
The Washington Post is the leading source of political and governmental coverage in the U.S.A.
New York Times, The (1851-2010) with Index (1851-1993 ) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times provides coverage of politics, society & events from 1851 to 2010. The Index (up to 1993) uses subject terms & topics in combination with full text, full page & article-level images from the New York Times archive.
Wall Street Journal, The (1889-1996) This link opens in a new window
An important newspaper for business and financial news, economic analysis, market & company evaluations. Focuses not only on the stock market, but on all aspects of global business, economics, consumer affairs, trends and issues. Full text Includes charts, stock tables, graphics, and illustrations.
Times of India, The (1838-2004) This link opens in a new window
The Times of India provides coverage of the politics, society and events from 1838 to 2004, ranging from British rule, the Indian mutiny, Post-Colonial development, Kashmir, Pakistan, Gandhi, Bhopal, the Indian film industry and sport

Historic American Newspapers
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

Magazine & periodical archives

LGBT magazine archive This link opens in a new window
This magazine archive will offer backfiles of many of the key periodicals the LGBT field. Titles will include The Advocate , Gay Times and Gay News and The Pink Paper
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.
British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Full text of hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth, comprising millions of high-resolution facsimile page images.
This is joint project of the British Library and Chadwyck-Healey .
19th Century UK Periodicals, Series 1 - New readerships: Women and children, sports and leisure, humour and satire This link opens in a new window
New Readerships comprises 92 Victorian periodicals in a searchable and browseable digital format. The focus is on the growth of publishing in the 19th Century. Covers children, humour, leisure & sport, politics, religion, and women. Includes Punch (1841-1900). Complements British Periodicals.
The Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
A complete searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with rich indexing enabling you to find images by garment type, designer and brand names. The Vogue Archive preserves the work of the world's greatest fashion designers, stylists and photographers and is a unique record of American and international fashion, culture and society from the dawn of the modern era to the present day.
Economist Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
The Economist Historical Archive delivers a complete searchable copy of every issue of The Economist from 1843 to 2010. Full-colour images, multiple search indexes, and the facility to browse each and every issue - all combine to offer a unique primary source covering the 19th and 20th centuries.
Terms of use.Advanced search allows searching of entire document or limiting to words in title, author, keyword, issue or document. Searches can also be limited to date range and/or section. You can also browse whole issues by date.

TV & radio news archives

Alexander Street Media Plus This link opens in a new window
This service contains more than 100,000 videos, images, and sound recordings.The collections include: a selection of historic newsreel from British Paramount News, Channel 4 and 5 News, Gaumont British News and Gaumont Graphic Newsreel, ITN, ITV, Reuters, Roving Report and Visnews.8,000 clips from Getty (moving images) and c.12,000 images from Getty (still images),The University of Brighton Design Archives.Wellcome Film with c. 450 titles from 1912 onwards.
It is important to check terms of use before using any of resources as copyright will vary from collection to collection. It is important to check terms of use before using any of resources as copyright will vary from collection to collection.

British Pathe
British Pathé is considered to be the finest newsreel archive in the world and is a treasure trove of 85,000 films unrivalled in their historical and cultural significance.
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Spanning the years from 1896 to 1978, the collection includes footage from around the globe of major events, famous faces, fashion trends, travel, science and culture.
Independent Radio
Collection of UK local radio broadcasts and news reports by independent commercial stations from 1973 to 1996, including the London Broadcasting Corporation archives.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) This link opens in a new window
An archive of 20th Century news from around the world. Global views on United States foreign and domestic policy after World War II. Covers the Cold War, China, the Middle East, Latin America, the Soviet Union, and more.
The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports is an important record of political open source intelligence. The original mission was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Many of these materials are first-hand reports of events as they occurred. They provide a fascinating insight into the second half of the 20th century. Translated as needed, these English language materials constitute an indispensable tool for all serious students of political science, world history and more. This fully searchable edition of FBIS Daily Reports published between 1974 and 1996 comprises 8 parts: (1) Middle East, Africa, Near East and South Asia; (2) Sub-Saharan Africa & South Asia, (3) China, (4) Asia, Pacific and East Asia, (5) Latin America, (6) Eastern Europe, (7) Soviet Union and Central Eurasia, and (8) Western Europe.

BBC Home Service Nine P.M. News Transcripts 1939-1945 [Microfiche]
A reproduction of the newsreaders' typescripts for the nightly radio news broadcast of the BBC throughout World War 2. The broadcasts provide information on domestic affairs as well as the war, and reflect the development of the vigorous, reliable news reporting for which the BBC became renowned. In some cases missing pages have been replaced by another bulletin for that day. Sometimes there are no extant bulletins, so an explanatory caption is reproduced.
To access these visit the Library help point.

TV & radio sources

Several television news channels are available through Sheffield Hallam University computers via shuplayer, through which you can watch BBC News 24, CNN, Sky News and Al-Jazeera.

Box of Broadcasts This link opens in a new window
Contains a permanent archive of content from nine channels: BBC1 London / BBC2 / BBC4 / ITV London / Channel 4 / More4 / Channel 5 / BBC Radio 4 / BBC Radio 4 Extra. Allows you to preview and save clips.

To access BoB you need to go to login, select your institution in the where are you from box (login using SHU username and password) and then follow the instructions to create an account.
Each user can request up to 20 new recordings (restricted to 5 in a 6hr period) or clips per day. There is no restriction on the number of existing programmes that can be viewed.

BoB is Learning on Screen’s on demand TV and radio service for education.This academically-focused system allows staff and students to record programmes from over 75 free-to-air channels; and search our archive of over 2.2 million broadcasts.

Tutorials are available here
BFI Player Free Films This link opens in a new window
See shorts and features, showing the best from the BFI, national and regional archives - including 120 years of Britain on film.
BFI ScreenOnline This link opens in a new window
Contains full-text articles with hundreds of hours of TV and film video and audio clips on topics related to the history of British film and television. All content can be viewed on campus. Access off-campus is restricted to textual material and still images only.
British Universities Film & Video Council This link opens in a new window
BUFVC - A gateway to a range of resources databases, news and information from the British Universities Film and Video Council. It includes TRILT (TV And radio broadcast schedule), the Moving Image Gateway, News on Screen, Shakespeare archive, information for researchers, the Local Radio Archive and events information.

Hansard: UK parliamentary debates and reports

Hansard provides the archive of the official report of the House of Commons and the House of Lords for the UK parliament.

It contains Debates and Oral and Written Answers to Questions. Coverage starts from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day.

Hansard - The official report of all parliamentary debates
Find Members, their contributions, debates, petitions and divisions from published Hansard reports dating back over 200 years.

Newspaper cartoons

British Cartoon Archive This link opens in a new window
Contains almost 154,000 individual cartoons comprising British editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons/images from 1790-2011, supported by large collections of comic strips, photos, newspaper cuttings, books and magazines, plus biographical data. Artwork available online mostly dates from 1904 to now.
It has work by 350 leading cartoonists, including Strube, Low, Vicky and Giles. Images (e.g. of Prime Ministers from Pitt the younger to David Cameron) can be downloaded and used for educational purposes, including high resolution images. Registered users can create teaching packs: web groups of cartoons (light boxes) which can be used as teaching aids, projects, or online exhibitions. For publication purposes, digital images with copyright details can be ordered through the feedback section.

Press and media complaints

Independent Press Standards Organisation rulings
IPSO is the regulator of the UK newspaper and magazine industry. These are their rulings on the complaints made by the public against various publications.
Ofcom- Audience complaints and Broadcast Bulletin
Ofcom is the regulator for the UK communications and media industries. This part of their websites contains a summary of audience complaints about television, radio and on-demand services, as well as the Broadcast Bulletins, which provide a detailed account of the outcomes of the investigation of these complaints.