duPont Library: News and Views: Finding a Balance: Getting Started

Why?

In current society, there are more perspectives than ever vying and jockeying for position in informing us concerning what is happening and why. It is very easy in this environment to seek only what agrees with our own preconceived notions of life and the world. It is everyone's responsibility to create a "balanced diet" of news and viewpoints in order to be a responsible and informed citizen.

Please use this guide as a starting point for creating a balance, and contact us for any questions you may have!

The Filter Bubble

Tools for Bursting the Filter Bubble
Tools to help read beyond the narrow perspective of a pre-existing perspective (particularly political perspectives).
Bursting the Facebook Bubble
Social media has made it easy to live in filter bubbles, sheltered from opposing viewpoints. So what happens when liberals and conservatives trade realities?
Quiz: Do you live in a bubble?
A set of questions about class and participation from PBS News Hour. Based on another quiz from author Charles Murray.

Read Across the Aisle

Read Across the Aisle
"Just as your Fitbit reminds you to get up and walk around after an hour of inactivity, this app will notice when you’ve gotten a little too comfortable in your filter bubble—and it’ll remind you to go see what other folks are reading."

Finding Reliable News in Your Library

National Newspapers Core Collection - US Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
A collection of several major daily newspapers, including: Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. 1980 to present. Updated daily.
Search interface: Proquest.
Proquest News and Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Contains the content of several national and Tennessee newspapers, both historical and current. Indexes can be searched individually or in combination by names, events, and subjects. Updated daily.
Historical: Atlanta Constitution 1868-1945. Christian Science Monitor 1908-1996. New York Times 1851-2007. Wall Street Journal 1889-1993. Washington Post 1877-1994. Current: Chicago Tribune 1985-present. Los Angeles Times 1985-present. New York Times 1980-present. Wall Street Journal 1984-present. Washington Post 1987-present.
News (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
A full-text newspaper database that provides access to more than 1,000 major U.S. regional, national and local newspapers as well as leading titles from around the world. Allows users to search articles instantly by title, headline, date, author, newspaper section, or other fields. Also includes thousands of images, radio, and TV broadcasts, and transcripts.
US Southeast Newsstream This link opens in a new window
US Southeast Newsstream enables users to search the most recent regional news content, as well as archives which stretch back to the 1980s featuring newspapers, newswires, and news sites in active full-text format. Southeast Newsstream covers news sources from Washington DC, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Proquest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Time Period: 1851-1997
Location: North America
Includes The Atlanta Constitution (1868-1945); The Christian Science Monitor (1908-1997), The New York Times (1851-2007), The Wall Street Journal (1889-1993), The Washington Post (1877-1994.)