One useful source, along with social media, are newspaper stories and Op-Eds focused on what at this early stage of research you perceive to be the problem. The newspapers below all require that you set up a personal registration. Following the links will lead you to instruction pages for setting up your accounts. These registrations will stay with you throughout your time at Penn.
You can also search up-to-date news from these newspapers without creating a personal account in the FACTIVA database
Search for historical news from multiple newspapers including African American, Jewish, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia newspapers in Proquest History Newspapers.
Social media is also a valuable source of information for locating individuals and groups that are writing about the problem.Institutions, NGOS, news organizations, foundations, and individuals use Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to reach their audiences. Of course, whatever you read in newspapers, social media or other venues should be fact-checked and cross-verified. There is minimal fact-checking on social media and many other venues, and confirmation bias can get the better of even a well-intended researcher or writer. Seeking primary evidence, looking at patterns, and cross-checking using diverse sources are all ways of creating more confidence in the reliability of your sources. Be sure to document all sources.
Using Google Search (as distinct from Google Scholar) is another valuable way of finding current information about your topic as you build a broader and deeper understanding of the problem, whom it affects, and what kinds of information readers will need to grasp its nature and possible solutions.
