What Is EBSCO

WHAT IS EBSCO COMMUNICATION & MASS MEDIA COMPLETE?

It is a database indexing nearly 600 journal titles relevant to Communication & Media Studies, 285 of them full-text.

HOW TO ACCESS EBSCO COMMUNICATION & MASS MEDIA COMPLETE

ON CAMPUS ACCESS

Log on to the network in the normal way then click on the internet Explorer icon from the desktop, or from the menu bar at the bottom of the screen
Open the Library and Learning Services website at

Select Database A-Z List, and then EBSCO from the E-list of databases
On the EBSCOhost homepageclick on the link for Communication & Mass Media Complete

OFF CAMPUS ACCESS

You will need an ATHENS account to access this database off campus. If you do not have one already, you will have to set it up on campus by following this link
If you already have an ATHENS account, go the Athens login site at:

Enter your personal ATHENS username and password, and logon
Select Resources
Scroll down the list of databases to find EBSCOhost databases and select this
Click on the link for Communication & Mass Media Complete

BASIC KEYWORD SEARCHING

Begin a search by typing in subject terms which best match your inquiry in the Find box
Click on the Search button to execute your search.

DISPLAYING AND VIEWING SEARCH RESULTS

Search results will be displayed with the number of hits listed at the top left of the screen.
Search results are displayed in groups of 10.
To view the next 10 references (if available), click on the next Page number in the sequence
To view a reference, click on its title (coloured hypertext link). This will display the full reference and an abstract of the article if available.
To view the full text, if available, click on the PDF Full Text or HTML Full Text icon.

COMBINING SEARCH TERMS

You can refine your search and retrieve more specific articles by combining search terms.
Using AND will increase the precision of your search. For example, searching for big brotherANDreality tv will give you results containing both of these terms
Using OR will broaden your search. For example, searching for big brother ORwife swap will give you a results list with references containing either of these terms.
Using NOTeliminates the specified term from the search. For example, searching for reality tv NOT big brother will eliminate the term “big brother” from the results
Note that words not separated by AND will be treated as phrases

WILDCARDS AND TRUNCATION SYMBOLS

Use ? in the middle of a word to replace a single letter. For example organi?ationwill retrieveboth the American spelling (organization) as well as the English spelling (organisation).
Using the * key at the end of a word will search for related terms from the root term. For example, organi?ation*will retrieve organisation, organization, organisations, organizations!

LIMITING YOUR SEARCH

To search for full text articles only, click the Full Text box on the Basic Search screen. You may also click the Scholarly Journals box to search only this source
On the Results Page you can limit your results by selecting one of the subject subdivisions listed in the left-hand column
On the same Results Page you can also limit your hits by selecting a specific format, e.g. Academic Journals

CREATING A FOLDER OF USEFUL REFERENCES

You can create a folder of useful references, which can be printed, emailed or saved. The folder can hold results from different searches. Click on the Add option to the right of each reference. When viewing the full reference, click of the Add to folder option

Printing, Saving or E-mailing Records

You can print, email or save individual references by first viewing the full reference (click on the title to see this), and then selecting the Print, E-mail or Save options
Alternatively, add a number of references to the Folder, and then view them by clicking on the Folder Has Items option. Then select the Print, E-mail or Save options
When saving documents in your folder to your PC or removable storage device, click on the Save icon, then select File and Save As from your browser's toolbar. You will need to save the document with either the file extension .txt e.g. EBSCO.txt or .html e.g. EBSCO.html
If you are saving a full-text reference, first view each reference individually, by clicking on either the HTML Full Text or PDF Full Text link
To save or print a PDF document, click on the small disk icon, on the left of the PDF toolbar. Do NOT select Fileor Save As

To save an HTML document, select File from the browser toolbar, and then Save As