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JOUR 447: Sports, Protest and the Media

Find resources for your JOUR447 research projects

Types of Information Sources

Information sources can generally be classified as either primary, secondary, or tertiary. This classification is based on the source's relationship to the original creator, subject, or event, so they can come in all kinds of formats. A source might be primary in one context but secondary in another!

For your project, your goal is to find the best available primary sources on your topic, and then supplement them with secondary sources.

Diagram of the three types of sources

Image from Sources of Information on Wikipedia, Karkhana Samuha

Type

Description

Examples include...

Primary sources

Primary sources are firsthand information or data from people who directly experienced a given event or time period.

Researchers analyze primary sources in original research to develop their own theories or conclusions. (When the researcher publishes a writeup of their conclusions, that's a secondary source!)

  • Sound recordings and transcripts
  • Firsthand social media content
  • Interviews
  • Letters
  • Diaries
  • Newspaper articles from the same time period
  • Photographs and films
  • Speeches
  • Pamphlets
  • Artwork and physical objects
  • Government documents

Secondary sources

Secondary sources comment on, interpret, evaluate, or analyze primary sources. They're usually written after the fact.

They're not evidence in and of themselves, but you can use them to trace back to primary sources or to examine how different researchers approach a topic.

  • Many academic journal articles (except for studies/original research)
  • News reports
  • Bibliographies
  • Biographies
  • Dictionaries
  • Histories
  • Textbooks

Tertiary sources

Tertiary sources compile and distill information from primary and secondary sources. They help point people toward the available sources of information on a topic.

The annotated bibliography required for this course is a type of tertiary source.

  • Bibliographies and reference lists
  • Encyclopedias
  • Indexes