Skip to Main Content

Journalism - Information Gathering Resources

Backgrounding

You've been given a topic on which to write a story.  If it is a localized story, you should search the local news archives to see what was written about the same topic in the past.  Not only will the results of the search provide more context, but it may also provide important facts and even valuable contacts useful in creating your own story. 

If you want to localize a global, national or regional story, use the MU licensed databases to search for stories on the same subject.  An example might be how drought affects the local economy.  You might search for stories about drought and the global economy or its effect on a particular country.

Local News Sources and Archives

Columbia Missourian (digital web version)

Columbia Missourian Digital Print Archive (collection of print newspapers only)

Columbia Daily Tribune (digital web version - requires a subscription, but you get three free articles per month)

Historical TV News Archive

Internet Archive's TV News Archive - is a free service provided as a way to enhance the capabilities of journalists, scholars, teachers, librarians, civic organizations and other engaged citizens. It repurposes closed captioning to enable users to search, quote and borrow from the Internet Archive’s collection of 500,000+ US TV news broadcasts aired since 2009.

MU Licensed News Databases (current and archives)