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Penn State University Libraries

Public Relations

 

Contact

Debora Cheney
Larry and Ellen Foster Communications Librarian, and, Head, Library Services to the World Campus/Penn State Online
814-863-1345

or Your Campus Librarian

Articles and Databases

Try These First

  • Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC)  
    • Comprehensive resource of scholarly journals and other periodicals related to communications and mass media, most containing full-text articles
    • Communication Abstracts
    • Good source of information on communication issues on a worldwide scale, from a variety of publishers, research institutions and information sources
    • Directs users to location of full-text articles, or prompts for articles that can be obtained through Inter library loan
  • Business Source Premier
    • Full text database of periodicals, trade publications and scholarly journals
    • Covers all business disciplines
  • Academic Search Complete
    • Multi-disciplinary database with full-text periodicals, trade publications and peer-reviewed journals
  • ABI/Inform Complete
    • Database of scholarly journals, trade magazines, and other periodicals and business news sources, primarily U.S. focused
    • Good source for current business news and analysis of media companies and industry trends from trade publications
    • Search topic ("public relations")

Newspapers/Press Releases

Newspapers provide important business/company/industry trends. National newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are important, but so are local newspapers where a company may be headquartered.

  • LexisNexis Academic - News Sources [Text Content Only]
    • Content in aggregated sources, such as Major World Newspapers, University Wire, Healthcare News, Business Wire, Web Blogs, etc.
  • Access World News (Newsbank)  [Text Content; Limited Streaming Video]
    • Local, regional, and national U.S. newspapers as well as full-text content of key international sources
    • Unique coverage of local and regional news, including companies, politics, sports, industries, cultural activities, etc.
  • Factiva (Dow Jones) [Text Content]
    • Choose Search from top tool bar
    • Click on Industry, then select Advertising/Public Relations/Marketing
    • We have a limited number of user seats for this database. Please select the logout option before you leave your session.

To determine which databases cover particular newspapers, use NewsCAT.

Company/Industry

  • Hoover's
    • Search Industry: Public Relations Services 
    • Overviews
    • Companies Lists
    • News & Press Releases
    • Associated Industry Codes
  • IBISWorld 
    • Industry Market Research
    • Company Research
    • Global Industry Research
    • Business Environment
  • Plunkett Research Online
    • Industry Research Center
      • Advertising, Branding & Marketing
    • Market Research & Trends
    • Company Profiles

Encyclopedias

Associations