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News and Media: Different types of media sources

Introduction

Information can come from anywhere and everywhere! Social media, blogs, podcasts, personal experiences,  interviews, books, journal and magazine articles, expert opinions, newspapers, and websites.

The type of information you need will of course vary depending on the question you are trying to answer.

Different assignments require you to search and find information from a variety of sources. This page will help guide you to understand where to go  to find certain types of information.

Media

As mentioned previously, media is a means of communication, such as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the internet, that reach or influence people widely.

In general, we can classify media in to three main categories:

  • Print Media
  • Broadcasting Media
  • Internet Media

Take a look through the following tabs to see examples of the different media available. 

Newspapers

  • Newspapers are printed and distributed on a daily or weekly basis and can be available online. The information within can include  news related to sports, politics, technology, science, local news, national news, international news, birth and death notices, as well as entertainment news related to fashion, celebrities and movies. 

Magazines

  • Magazines are printed on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Magazine articles contain information about finance, food, lifestyle, celebrity,  fashion, sports, etc.

Books

  • books focus on a particular topic or subject, giving you the reader the ability to absorb more information and knowledge about the subject or topic area.

Television

  • There are many television channels out there! You can have a general channel which will include a variety of programmes such as documentaries, series, travel, news, film, lifestyle, politics, drama etc. Then you can have a dedicated channel for the type of information that is shared. Each channel will deliver a different type of content. For example, you can have a channel for news, another channel for drama, another one dedicated to movies, sports, animation, nature, travel, politics, cartoon, religion and so on. Television is the foremost and top broadcasting media due to its reach to the audience.

Radio

  • Radio uses radio waves to transmit and broadcast entertaining, informative, and educative content to the public. Due to its high reach to the audience, radio is widely used for advertising products and services. Radio is one of the oldest means of entertainment.

Films

  • Films have world-wide reachability. It’s the best type of mass media to promote cultures and spread social awareness. 

Social media can provide instant, far-reaching news faster than traditional news outlets or sources. But, you will need to be careful and vigilant as there is an increasing need to verify the accuracy of this information. Find more about evaluating information and checking facts.    

Social networks or websites

  • Social media networks include sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Quora, Reddit, Pinterest, etc. They are very easily set up, user-friendly and widely used by people around the world to connect with each other and to share information. Although we can find any type of news here, always err on the side of caution as the news shared may be misleading because of the lack of regulations on the content shared.

Online forums

  • An online forum is an online "virtual" location or place where we can comment, message, or discuss a particular topic. Forums allow us to share knowledge with other people with the same interest. 

Podcast 

  • A podcast is a digital audio file made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new instalments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.  A podcast can be a series of audios focusing on a particular topic or theme.  Anyone can share and communicate their knowledge with the world.

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