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Okay, let's actually start evaluating our search results. I'm going to start off by
doing a basic search in EBSCO Full Text on our familiar topic
of media violence
and children.
Of course, if we wanted to quickly throw in our Boolean Operators we could
do "media and violence" then "children".
Okay, we have our initial search results of about a little under 1500
and what we want to do is obviously start going through and reading our
search results.
There are largely three things you're going to be doing as you search. First,
you want to see is this
particular search result
on topic.
Second, you want to find out is this particular search result a quality
resource that is actually
something that would be
useful for me
And then third,
you want to see
does this particular item give me any additional clues
that could help me
in my search. So additional clues might be another term to use
or particular studies that are mentioned our models of behavior or something like
that
for the particular type of example or search that you're doing.
So
you looked at the earlier video about using Boolean Operators, you'll notice
here we have
our first result. We have "Media Violence, Physical Aggression and
Relational Aggression in School-Aged Children:
A Short-Term
Longitudinal Study".
If we take a look we can see that we don't have this particular item but if
this is actually perfect for us
then it's definitely something that we can't be deterred
from getting.
We can take a look and see right here if we put our icon
over the magnifying glass in this particular database it will show us more
information.
We have our publication type is an academic journal so that's in our favor,
it's extremely recent that's also in our favor,
and we have our abstract which will give us a
sort of a brief overview of what is actually
happening in this particular academic article.
You'll notice that many popular sources
don't have a
standard abstract many of them are just the introductory paragraph of the
material that you're looking at.
So here we have that "many studies have shown that media violence has an effect
on children's subsequent aggression" so again keywords are popping out.
You'll notice that 'media violence' is a catch phrase so
in previous searches I'd separated media and violence.
It does seem, then, there is the other option of just saying media violence
as one particular concept.
Next we have, again, the word 'aggression' is also used.
"This study expands upon previous research in three directions by
examining several subtypes of aggression" and again, here we go,
"verbal, relational, and physical". If we wanted to actually break that down
ourselves,
instead of just talking about all different types of violence we could
talk about and study
only
verbal violence
or emotional abuse or something like that.
abuse is obviously another word that you could potentially use.
You notice as well that we have this particular term "media violence exposure"
abbreviated MVE and we're not certain is this a special term that these
authors use? Or is this something that many people use?
So exposure to media violence is probably a big portion of what people
actually study
so that is another particular key word that we would want to write down
and keep in the back of our thoughts as we start to actually look through it.
"Children's consumption of media violence" is another way of saying
"exposure".
So that might be another
aspect
or concept that we may want to introduce into our searching.
Also we have here our actual subjects.
Now, subjects are something that I will be talking about just a little later but
it is something we will definitely cover.
If we keep going through our list liking "Violence and Action:
An Examination of Gender Differences in Children's Processing of Animated
Content." You'll notice that 'animated content'
may -let's see here- it refers to cartoons.
Obviously animated films, that sort of thing and I wonder if they would also
include video games. We don't know.
So again we just start to look through our results, try and pick up
different keywords
and you'll notice here, really quickly, this is an academic journal. It is from
2011
and
it, unfortunately,
is not something that we actually have full-text again.
This next one we do have full text, it's very nice. It's "Violent Video Games and Other
Media Violence, Part 1." I think this was
a fairly familiar search topic. We looked at the other video about our
Boolean Searches
if you wanted to take a look at it, what exactly is this? You'll notice right here
this is a periodical
on Pediatrics for Parents. So first off we're getting that this is obviously
it's about pediatrics but it's for parents. This is
a
periodical, not an academic journal,
that is written for parents so this might be a beneficial source
of information in that it'll give you
a lot of the perspectives of scientists who are studying this
but it's written for parents. So it might be in more lay-terms.
The one thing is that you're not exactly certain
what has been filtered in regards to this information. You may want to use it
to find different studies that have been done
and to get sort of
the different keywords or more keywords that could be used
by researchers when they're speaking to lay people who are not obviously studying it
in the field.
Okay, so now let's actually take a look at the idea of subjects.
Now, with this particular article we have "exposure", which is a word we should be
familiar with now,
"Exposure to Media Violence and Young Children With and Without Disabilities."
You'll notice that this particular article is adding a new concept which is
specifically children with disabilities or without disabilities
and looking at that
particular comparison
and it also is
talking about "Powerful Opportunities for Family and Professional Partnerships."
Another layer or concept
that is added to this particular topic.
So if we look at
this particular item in detail
we have, again, academic journal from 2008 so it's not too old.
If we actually look at the different subjects
these subjects are essentially
a way for many information people like library, librarians and that sort of thing,
it's a way that we used to
organize information. We used to actually apply the subjects to every
single article
that actually showed these were their main subjects if that makes sense. So
what essentially has happened is someone who
does this all the time
reviews every article and particularly has reviewed this article and seen that
these are the main subjects.
It's a way for us to sort of simplify things it's like going to any sort of
index, which we talked about, most databases are designed to be indexed
and you look them up by subject. This is
essentially the subjects that you
used to
look things up by.
So for this particular article we have "violence in mass media". That definitely
applies. "Television viewers", of course, is who we're looking at.
"Psychology" is a general
subject "Children with disabilities" again is
a narrower
concept about the specific television viewers we're looking at.
But we're also talking about "family partnerships", "services for children with
disabilities", of course, "child development"
and it refers to the "National Association for the Education of Young
Children."
If you're not familiar with this particular organization you could easily
do a Google search to find out who they are.
And again, "psychological aspects"
and you'll notice that we have "psychology" and "psychological aspects". They are
slightly different in meaning
and
what you may want to do
is take note of what the subjects are
because you can actually search just by subject.
So let's actually demonstrate that really quickly.
Ok, now that we've actually looked at the subjects
let's actually put them to the test.
Now to actually search by subject it's easier to go to 'advanced search'.
Now remember than in an 'Advance Search' screen you can actually manipulate
and change things anyway you want.
So I'm gonna start off by putting in one of our subject terms that we saw earlier,
"violence in mass media".
I'm going to make sure that I actually designate it, that it is indeed a subject
and just to make sure we don't want to talk about all forms of violence in
mass media, very broad, so I want to make sure that we stay within our target
of our topic
which is talking about children
and violence and mass media so I'm going to truncate this particular
Word just to keep it fairly broad
and let's go from here.
You'll notice that we now have 280 results
instead of the
rather large list of about a little under 1500 results.
"Consequences of Parental Underestimation and Overestimation
of Youh Exposure to Violence."
"Sex and Violence: Is Exposure to Media Content Harmful to Children?"
You'll notice that each one of these
actually seems to be on topic which
can be very beneficial
when you're searching if you use subject terms to sort of weed out any
articles that
potentially might have the words
that you're searching but are not actually mainly on the topic that you're
searching.
So these are sort of the quick ways of starting to evaluate
the content. Remember that as you go through
you need to make sure can you get access to it? Is a full text? Is it not?
You'll notice here with this particular item it says "get it"
and it is -should be- available in the Camden Carol Library let's see if we
can actually get it
and you'll notice that we do,
or we are supposed to have access to this particular article,
2011 in our EBSCO host electronic journal service and in
Synergy Blackwell Journals.
Either one of these should get us to the article.
And here's the article that we wanted and here is the abstract
and to actually access the full text all we have to do is open in this new window.
So I realize that sometimes when you click to get to the full text using
the "get it" button sometimes have to jump through a couple hoops to get there but you
can get direct access to things if we do have it electronically.
So hopefully this video can help you out a little
in starting to actually process and start to really
digest what you're actually seeing
and if you have any questions please let me know. The research exercise
will be covering most of this and really pushing you guys to go way beyond some
of the keywords that you guys were producing.