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ORI 202: Compare Popular vs. Scholarly Journals & Websites

Popular vs. Scholarly Journals and Websites - A Comparison

Popular vs. Scholarly Journals and Websites

 

Popular

Scholarly

AUDIENCE

General readers.

Professors, researchers, scholars, students.

APPEARANCE

Colorful, eye-catching, lively, slick.

Attractive, but also serious.

ADVERTISEMENTS

Many; banner ads that change on a regular basis.

Few, if any.

PRODUCER

Commercial and non-profit organizations; personal home pages.

Educational institutions, faculty pages, professional associations, some commercial and non-profit organizations.

AUTHOR

Staff writers, journalists, usually not experts in the field.

Experts in the field, professionals, credentials provided.

CONTENT & FOCUS

News oriented, entertaining,non-technical, opinions.

Original research, subject specific.

LANGUAGE, STYLE

Easy to read, engaging.

Formal language, prior knowledge of subject matter required.

LENGTH

Usually short to medium in length, providing broad overview.

Usually quite lengthy in order to provide in-depth analysis on topic. 

ILLUSTRATIONS

Heavily illustrated, eye-catching.

Few illustrations. Include appropriate research-oriented tables, charts, and graphs.

DOCUMENTATION

Very few, if any

Bibliographies, footnotes

TIMELINESS

Up-to-date

Timeliness is not as important

WORDS IN TITLE

No specific words included or excluded, may be cutesy or contain slang

Language of the discipline is usually used; “study” or “research” will often be included in the title.

PrepSTEP for Colleges & Universities

Internet Research: What's Credible? / Films on Demand

Internet Research: What’s Credible? (29:00)

On the Internet, it’s incredibly easy, and fast, to research a topic with a few simple keystrokes. But it’s also incredibly easy to end up with unreliable and non-credible information that makes your research efforts fruitless. With an overwhelming abundance of options after doing an Internet search, how can you tell which results are reliable? In this video, viewers will learn strategies for narrowing down results and honing in on credible sources of information online. Experts such as college professors and media librarians offer advice, while students share their own experiences. A special section on one of today’s most popular research sites—Wikipedia—investigates whether it’s trustworthy or not for academic or professional use. A Coproduction of Films for the Humanities & Sciences and MotionMasters.

Evaluating News/Stories/Websites