This guide is intended for Spring 2024 PRL 206 students (course sections taught by Professors Brad Horn and Caroline Reff)
Syracuse University Libraries offers numerous research tools and information sources to assist you when investigating public relations. Explore the various sections of this guide, including tabbed sub-pages, for links to leading examples of these tools.
These resources specific to PRL 206 gathered by SU Public Communications Librarian, Michael Pasqualoni.
The guide contains far more starting points that any single PRL 206 student may need, and is meant to complement other source material suggested in course assignment instructions.
A three minute video screencast with starting point tips on searching the libraries general search tool, called SU Libraries Search. Expand the video player to full screen size for the best viewing experience.
Librarian search tip: Favor use of the advanced search screen in Libraries Search, and also in other specific academic databases, to access the widest range of possible search results and search result refinement filters.
These article databases can be excellent starting points when investigating published sources in PR. Most everybody in PRL 206 seeking background literature within the PR field should explore at least one, perhaps more than one, of these best bet databases.
Content types in these databases known as 'trade journals' or 'trade publications' will usually dive deeper into recent discussion of practical career opportunities and trends. Scholarly/academic/peer reviewed journal sources may also discuss these trends, but generally from a more theoretical or formal social sciences perspective.
Tip: search result refinements will appear at either the left or right column of a database search results screen. See especially, refinement options for:
Navigational tip: If you prefer to navigate to all back issues of a specific periodical (i.e, scholarly journal title or trade publication, or magazine title), type the desired title into the query window at the library's journal's list A good technique for getting to specific titles like, Journal of Public Relations Research, etc.
Additional tip: Journal of Public Relations Research articles employ APA citation style - so their lists of works cited represent models for those formats. CAVEAT: Sometimes the format they use online does not include issue numbers in those citations, but only volume numbers, which is somewhat non-standard.
Need help on formatting the sources you cite in your academic writing (e.g., APA, MLA, etc.) or want access to full-fledged online bibliographic management systems-like "Zotero" or "Mendeley?" Visit SU Libraries Citation Styles website OR the library page for Citation Management Tools.
More help on formats for academic citation styles: Visit these links to SU Libraries Citation and Academic Integrity Tutorials for sets of brief lessons and screencasts from the publisher "Credo" demonstrating how to apply various academic citation style formats like APA or MLA or Chicago as well as further guidance on how to avoid plagiarism in your writing. Most are 2 to 5 minutes in length.
SU Libraries Search: Make the most of entering search queries into SU Libraries Search (the current main, general search engine for library collections).
Article Databases: For PRL 206 (and most research within Public Relations) be sure to also explore a few other article databases recommended on this PRL 206 guide
Sorting and Filtering Search Results: With both SU Libraries Search and individual article databases- is the ability to search a proper name of a company or other organization, government agency, person or a named theory within public relations -and then sort results chronologically. One can also apply other search result filters (e.g., for limiting what you see to a desired resource/source type or desired range of publication dates.
Local Examples: If you happen to have a focus on a smaller, local or regional organization as part of your research, those may not often be mentioned (sometimes not at all) within the larger, national/international academic databases such as ProQuest or others mentioned on this guide. But looking to the Syracuse.com subpage of this guide, if researching news coverage of an organization that is smaller and very local to the Syracuse area. And the best news database option for that is Newsbank's Syracuse News Sources and/or searching of Syracuse.com directly
Other general database searching tips -
These PR career specializations should closely match those in PRL research assignments - and may also help with the final research papers in PRL 206 as well.
Another technique that may help in locating article discussion about Public Relations within a specific delimited industry environment is to select a major database for that field and then enter search phrases such as "public relations." Or experiment with entry of other term(s) pertinent to the PR field, which may include specific job titles one sees in the public relations field.
Tip - Search Terminology: within certain discourse communities for some of these sub-disciplines, when speaking about "public relations" related activities, members working within some specialization areas may not always literally use that phrase itself ("public relations"). In both government and also nonprofit contexts, other terminology may be equally or more common (e.g., in the nonprofit world one thinks of terms like "community," "community outreach," "community relations," etc. OR in entertainment, a job title such as "publicist."). So as you encounter those, or analogous alternative wordings, be sure to employ them within some of your search queries.
PR Counseling ("Agencies")
Education
Financial PR & Investor Relations
Although activities in this career sub-field are different, consider using the article database(s) recommended for PR Agencies
Sports/Sport Management
Travel and Tourism
The database called ScienceDirect contains current and back issues of the scholarly journal, Annals of Tourism Research. Another journal those working in this specialization may wish to explore is entitled Place Branding and Public Diplomacy
Nonprofit Sector (Primarily Non-Arts Related)
Political & Government PR
Government Relations, Public Affairs, and Lobbying
Health and Healthcare Industries
Arts and Entertainment
Corporate (Community Relations & Social Responsibilities Programs)
Beauty & Fashion
The U.S. Department of Labor supports freely available online tools for individuals exploring career opportunities. These lead to current information and data about skills, industry trends and salaries – [not as descriptive as trade publication articles or books, but great overviews]. Also helpful in providing job classification titles that might represent good search terms when exploring PR using licensed databases or search engines:
Crowdsourced careers and salary information also appears on the social media platform Glassdoor https://www.glassdoor.com/ . Be aware data here is employee contributed. Often providing data unavailable elsewhere, but self-selection among those deciding to participate may problematize broader conclusions. Especially when assessing salary and related trends reported by individuals, use multiple sources and databases to explore if Glassdoor data seems reliable or off-base for specific job classifications you investigate. Be a savvy evaluator of these trends. Past salary data may not reflect future directions for those numbers.
News databases also may help many PRL 206 students when seeking background information on an organization for the final project in the course. Contact the Newhouse Librarian if seeking a specific news database recommendation
For a gateway to additional newspaper databases SU Libraries offers - visit the online research guide site called Newspaper Databases
News, business, and legal sources covering world news and companies, and including U.S. Supreme Court decisions, state, federal and international law, regulations, and law reviews.
Two leading examples of superb news source aggregator databases (including business news) that are great alternatives to Nexis Uni include:
Access World News Access Tip: Access World News (Newsbank) has been expanding its range of full page imaged newspaper archives of current and recent content, with titles like The Guardian, The Independent, and more local to the SU Hill, Syracuse Post-Standard. A handy way to see all such page imaged newspaper collections from the Access World News homepage is to click on the A-Z Source List, then click on the column heading for "Format" so that the format type called "image" sorts the page imaged newspaper titles toward the top of that A to Z list.
Viewing either or both of these brief instructional screencasts also may help you in your quest for relevant source material in PRL 206. Just be sure to convert the general examples demonstrated into use of search terminology with the same tools that is specific to the study and practice of public relations and related fields.
The focus in the following demonstration involves examples primarily of how to located scholarly journal articles. These search techniques can also be applied in PRL 206.