On this Guide
This guide will assist you in locating resources in the popular media from the mid 20th Century to the present.
Newspapers
NewspaperArchives provides full-text access to hundreds of newspapers by title and date or by keyword. Database includes many smaller regional newspapers, including the Syracuse Post Standard. Some titles have coverage back to the 1700s, most have quite a bit of 20th Century coverage.
More major-market US newspapers are available via ProQuest Newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post along with a selection of titles from across the U.S. such as the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Denver Post, The Sacramento Bee plus other important U.S. papers.
The Historical New York Times includes full access to the archive from 1851 to 2006 (issues from 2006 to present are available on the NYT website).
The Historical Chicago Defender, an independent African-American owned and operated newspaper which published from 1910 to 1970, is also available via ProQuest, and, through the "Search Multiple Databases" option, can be searched alongside the New York Times archive.
For access to a broader range of newspapers, check out Pam Thomas's Research Guide for Newspapers at SU.
Popular Magazines
Our general databases, like Proquest Research Library and Wilson OmniFile have coverage of many popular magazines, but their coverage generally begins in the late 1980s or early 1990s. There are a few options for finding older magazines, both in print and electronically.
Back issues (and often full runs) of popular magazines like Time, Newsweek, Life, and others are available in Bird library:
Time Magazine 1924-1977
AP2 T58 Bird-2nd Floor
US News & World Report 1948-1977
AP2 U58 Bird-2nd Floor
Life Magazine 1936-1972
AP2 L72 2nd Floor Oversize
Ebony - 1955 - 1977
AP2 E19 2nd Floor Oversize
Newsweek 1954-1980
AP2 .N55 Bird-2nd Floor
Many, many other familiar titles are available in that area of the library, and you can find more by going to SUMMIT and searching by Journal Title. Some will be on microfilm only, like Rolling Stone Magazine (#2264, from November 1967 to the present). Later issues of the titles mentioned above are generally available on microfilm as well.
Search Summit for other titles
Search Magazines through Google Books
Additionally, Google Books recently started providing access to dozens of magazines, some going back to the 60s. It’s a limited collection, but very easy to search. Titles include The Advocate (1994-2006) and SPIN (1985 - 2009).
Audio and Video Resources
Vanderbilt Television News Archive has broadcast news segments from major networks (mostly NBC and CNN) since August 1968.
BBC News Online: On This Day Archived video, audio, and text from important events in history, organized by date and theme, though a little hit-or-miss.
CBC has radio and television clips from the 60s-80s on their archive website.
The Pacifica Radio Archives, though it’s a highly mediated archive, it includes another perspective on a lot of contemporary controversial issues.
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