Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On

From today's New York Times:

"It is not news that young politically minded viewers are turning to alternative sources like YouTube, Facebook and late-night comedy shows like “The Daily Show.” But that is only the beginning of how they process information.

According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one."

Read the full article.

State of the News Media 2008

The Project for Excellence in Journalism has posted its State of the News Media 2008 report online.

The fifth annual report aims "to gather in one place as much data as possible about all the major sectors of journalism, to identify trends, mark key indicators, note areas for further inquiry and provide a resource for citizens, journalists and researchers."

Section of the report cover newspapers; online news; network, cable, and local TV; radio; magazines; and ethnic media. Each section includes content analysis as well as looks at audience, economics, ownership and more.

Direct Export from Quest to RefWorks

RefWorks users can now export the details of books and other materials found in Quest directly to their RefWorks account. Simply check off the items you want to save, click on Export/Email/Save at the top of the screen, and then select Export Record(s) to RefWorks. You'll be asked to log into your RefWorks account, and once you do the records will be saved there.

As with all records in RefWorks, you can move the Quest items to different folders and use them, along with other bibliographic records you gather, to generate bibliographies in APA, MLA, and other formats.

To learn more about RefWorks, see the RefWorks FAQ.

For instructions on importing records to RefWorks from Communication Abstracts and Communication & Mass Media Complete, see this CommTopics blog post.