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SSI2-132: Wild Things

Exploring Wilderness Topics

Using the resources and strategies featured on this page, find 1-2 popular media sources on an environmental issue that interests you and respond to the following questions. Then, use your responses to begin creating a preliminary concept map for your topic.

  1. What issues are discussed and how do they connect to ideas about the wild or wilderness?
  2. What types of evidence are mentioned/cited in the article you chose? What other sources does it point you to?
  3. To further explore your topic, are there other ideas/terms you would like to research? What kinds of scholars do you think would be working on this topic?
  4. What would Cronon have to say about this topic?

Finding Media Coverage for a General Audience

If you're looking for for a general audience source about environmental issues, you can try browsing one of the publications listed below. Note that some publications may have a limit on how much content may be accessed for free. 

Environmental issues are discussed across all forms of media, not just traditional news sources, and not all media is indexed by library databases. You might also check for independent websites for radio and TV stations and use their search functions, look at a government agency or an environmental organization's website, queue up a podcast, or check social media to see what folks are talking about.

 

Searching can help you narrow in on a particular topic. Try searching keywords that describe your topic (like 'rewilding' or 'eco-anxiety' or 'monoculture') in any of the three popular press and news databases listed below to search for an article. Each has similar content but a different interface, so try them out and see which one you prefer. All of them allow you to filter your results by date, so that you can find only recent articles.

Search Tips

You can also try a Google search that includes search terms related both to the topic you're looking for and what you're trying to find (new research):

("climate anxiety" or eco-anxiety) and ("new research" OR "new study" OR "recent research" OR "recent study")

You can also use the "tools" button at the top of your Google search to adjust your results by date, and use the 'news' filter to find news articles. See screenshot below:

Eco anxiety Google Search Results

If you want to get really fancy, you can add inurl:.edu to try to find press releases from universities about the work being done by their faculty. This can be very useful!

And don't forget to click through past just the first page of search results. 

From News Story to Scholarly Article

Knowing how to find the original source from a news or popular press report is a key information skill. From the news story, figure out as much citation information as you can about the original study. Does it mention:

  • When the study was conducted?
  • Who the author or lead researcher was?
  • What journal the study was published in?

Then you have several options:

  1. Many news stories nowadays will often provide links to any original research they discuss, but you'll want to make sure you are logged in to your Puget Sound account to get to the full text (if access is provided by Collins Library);
  2. You can use the information you gathered as your search terms when looking in the databases on the "Secondary Sources" page, or in Google Scholar, and then use the "check for full text" buttons to see whether you have full access through Collins Library;
  3. If you know the name of the journal that the article was published in, you can search Primo for the title of the journal (not the title of the article!!) and check that way to see if Collins has access to the journal that you're looking for.