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Film and Media Studies

This guide provides an introduction to resources that support research in film and media studies, primarily through a humanities lens. It includes links and tools for articles, books, films, dissertations, and more!

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FMS 130 - Latinx Media (Spring 2024 Professor Benamou)

Welcome! This course guide is for students in Professor Benamou's FMS13-CLS129: Latinxs in the Media class. There are many resources on this guide that will help you with your assignment. Navigate this page by clicking any of the links to find resources, tips on searching, and more!

Bibliographies + Books: Journal Articles & Databases: Other Helpful Links:
  1. Bibliographies & Encyclopedias
  2. Examples of Scholarly Books
  3. How to Search for Books at UCI Libraries
  1. Journals to Consult
  2. Databases for Research
  1. Latinx Media Scholars 
  2. Search Tips + Tutorials

 

Bibliographies & Encyclopedias

Bibliographies:

Published bibliographies are excellent starting points in the research process. UCI Libraries subscribes to a resource called 'Oxford Bibliographies Online' (OBO) which offers authoritative research guides across a variety of subject areas. These entries are annotated bibliographies that offer you comprehensive lists of the best scholarship across a variety of subjects. Here are a few examples related to this course:

Latino Studies: 
FilmUS Spanish language RadioTelenovelas Spanish-Language NewspapersPublic RadioPopular Culture 

Cinema + Media Studies: 
Latina/o Americans in Film and TelevisionImmigration and CinemaLatina/o Representation and Border CinemaSpanish Language Television

African American Studies
Afro-Latinos

Latin American Studies: 
Popular Culture and Globalization

Encyclopedias:

Encyclopedias are highly recommended as a starting point for your research on a particular topic. Encyclopedias will give you introductory information to help you broaden or narrow your topic, while also providing keywords and terms needed to conduct further research.

Scholarly Books to Consider

A list of recommended Latinx Film & Television books:

A list of recommended books on Latinx Studies:

How to Search for Books at UCI Libraries

UC Library Search

UC Library Search is the easiest way to find and discover books. To make it a bit easier, when you enter keywords into UC Library Search, use the filters on the left-hand side and select "books" and "book chapters" as the format, and also pay attention to publication year.

Project Muse eBooks

Search for thousands of ebooks, with emphasis on humanities and social sciences.

Google Books

Google Books contains millions of digitized books beyond UCI Library. You can use it as a "discovery tool" . For example, you can keyword search an artist's name to see where they appear in various chapters of books. Only public domain (out of copyright) books are available as full-text in this tool, so check the library for the full-text copy.

Finding Books in the Library Stacks

Sometimes, it is nice to browse the print collection available locally on campus. Because this course can be interdisciplinary in nature, you may be looking at multiple sections in the library (history, social sciences, humanities, communication, film studies, and more). Here are a few starting points to browse the library stacks:

Class H: Social Sciences Examples:
HT51-1595 Communities. Classes. Race.
HM1206-1211 Communication. Mass Media
Class E: History of the Americas  
E151-909 United States
Class F: History of the Americas  
F1201-3799 Latin America.
F1201-1392 Mexico
F1421-1440 Central America
F2202-3799 South America
F2251-2299 Colombia
F2501-2659 Brazil
F3051-3285 Chile
Class P: Language and Literature  
PN1993-1999  Motion Pictures
PN1990-199.92 Broadcasting (Radio, Television)
PN4699-5650 Journalism. The periodical press, etc.

 

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Latinx Media Scholars

A list of recommended Latinx media scholars, filmmakers, and curators recommended by your professor. When you click these links, you'll see that it takes you to UC Library Search (it is an author subject search), showing you books and articles published by each individual.

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Journals to Consult

These are just a few recommended journals to consult. You can run a keyword search within these journals, or pay attention when you're searching on databases to the publications that you're seeing, noting some of these journals in particular.

  1. Latino Studies Journalexplores Latino/a culture at the local, national, transnational, and hemispheric levels. This journal illuminates the struggles of Latinas and Latinos for equality, representation, and social justice.
  2. Aztlan: a Journal of Chicano Studies (1970-): Presents original research that is relevant to or informed by the Chicano experience. It focuses on scholarly essays in the humanities, social sciences, and arts.Aztlán seeks ways to bring Chicano studies into critical dialogue with Latino, ethnic, American, and global studies.
  3. Chicana/Latina Studies (1997-): An interdisciplinary publicationof a feminist Chicana/Latina and Native women's academic organization, Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS, Women Active in Research and Social Change). It aims to provide space for those historically marginalized and the journal is receptive to all scholarly methods and theoretical perspectives that examine, describe, analyze, or interpret the experiences of Chicanas/Latinas and Native women.
  4. Centro (1987-): Dedicated entirely to the field of Puerto Rican Studies. It publishes the latest work from scholars in a wide range of academic traditions, in order to enhance and advance the field of Puerto Rican Studies.
  5. Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures (1976-): Dedicated to both critical inquiry and cultural expression. Chiricú showcases new scholarship from diverse disciplines as well as creative works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, the visual arts, interviews, personal essays, and reviews of books, film, and exhibitions. 
  6. Afro-Hispanic Review (1982) The Afro-Hispanic Review, an academic journal of Afro-Hispanic literature and culture, is published by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. The journal’s mission is to promote the study of Afro-Hispanic literature and culture.

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Please also visit the Film and Media Studies Journal page, which lists many other critical film and media studies academic journals and magazines, broadly defined.

  1. Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (1961-):  This journal engages debate and rigorous thinking among humanities scholars of film, television, digital media, and other audiovisual technologies. It covers the aesthetic, political, and cultural interpretation of media and their production, circulation, and reception.
  2. Film Quarterly (1945-):  Film Quarterly, a journal devoted to the study of film, television, and visual media, publishes scholarly analyses of international and Hollywood cinema as well as independent film, including documentary and animation. The journal also revisits film classics; examines television and digital and online media; reports from international film festivals; reviews recent academic publications; and on occasion addresses installations, video games and emergent technologies
  3. Television and New Media (2000-): Explores the fields of television and new media studies as they focus on the historical, ethnographic, political-economic, technological, and textual dimensions of media in social contexts. 
  4. Journal of Popular Film & Television (1972-): The goal of the Journal of Popular Film and Television is to provide a representative cross section of critical-cultural perspectives and to broaden the existing literature to include the “public visions” of popular filmmakers and television showrunners, economic and industrial factors, and an emphasis on the complex role of audiences in the development of film and television as art forms and wide-reaching sociocultural forces.

 

Research Databases

These databases are excellent resources for getting started. Try running a few keyword searches in more than one to see what articles and results show up! Some are specific to a field of study while others cover all disciplines.

Latino Studies Databases:

Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI)

Provides complete bibliographic citations to the contents of scholarly journals published around the world on Latin America, the Caribbean, and Hispanics/Latinos in the US since the late 1960s. Includes everything from political, economic, and social issues to the arts and humanities. See the list of journals here.

Chicano Database

This databases Indexes a wide variety of materials (journal articles, books, book chapters) on the Mexican-American, Chicano, and the broader Latino experience. Scholarship is dated from 1960s-present. Use the "Get it at UC" link for full-text if not in database, or try ILL.

Film and Media Studies Scholarship:

Film & Media Studies Databases (ProQuest)

This link will cross-search multiple databases in one search: the American Film Institute Film Catalog, the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive, Performing Arts Periodicals, Film Index International, and FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals.

Communication + Media Studies:

Communication Abstracts

This database covers communication (and media) studies. . Use this database to research mass media topics.

Gender Studies:

GenderWatch 
Alternative press and other hard-to-find articles about gender and sexuality. Coverage varies: mostly 1990s - current

Multidisciplinary Studies:

Academic Search Complete

This database is multidisciplinary so it covers many subject areas. It includes access to thousands of peer-reviewed journals as well as abstracts for magazines, monographs, reports, and conference proceedings. 

JSTOR

JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. JSTOR helps people discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content through a powerful research and teaching platform, and preserves this content for future generations

Google Scholar

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Here a few links to news databases that are based in the U.S. Pay attention to dates (listed in the coverage information) as some are historical and some are current. Also, get a free subscription to NYTimes.com and Washington Post!

U.S. Major Dailies 
Includes The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. Coverage: 1980s - today.

La Opinion 
Spanish language daily newspaper published in Los Angeles. Coverage: 2000 - current.

California Newspapers (Historical)
Coverage: 1850-1922 

AltPressWatch 
Alternative and independent press newspapers, magazines, and journals. Coverage: mostly 2000 - current.

Alternative Press Index and Archive 
An index to alternative, radical, and left periodicals, newspapers, and magazines. Coverage varies: mostly 2000s - current

Ethnic NewsWatch
Articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic, minority, and native press in America.

UCI Libraries provides access to a few Latin American news databases that are historical (as early as the 1800s). Here are a couple of them: 

Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library (Historical)

Coverage: 1884-2016
Newspapers in Spanish, English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese.

Latin American Newspapers (Historical)

Includes 35 newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th century in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela

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Film & Media Studies Databases
This is a cross-search of multiple databases through ProQuest: the American Film Institute Film Catalog, the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive, Performing Arts Periodicals, Film Index International, and FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals.

Daily Variety Archives Variety began as a weekly publication December 16, 1905. Currently, the archives begin March 18, 1906. The archive is currently missing: March 29, 1932-June 14, 1932. The archive contain every issue of Daily Variety, which began publication September 6, 1933. An excellent source when trying to find older film reviews!

Media History Digital Library (Historical)

A free online archive/database featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.

Los Angeles Times, 1985-present 
Search for articles in recent editions of the LA Times.

New York Times, 1980-present 
Search for articles in recent editions of the New York Times.

Ethnic Newswatch 
Articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic, minority, and native press in America.

Media History Digital Library 

A free online archive/database featuring millions of pages of books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.

Daily Variety Archives contain almost every issue Variety has ever published — that's every page, including articles and ads, front pages and back covers. Each page is a watermarked PDF file. Variety began as a weekly publication December 16, 1905. Currently, the archives begin March 18, 1906. The archive is currently missing: March 29, 1932-June 14, 1932. The archive contain every issue of Daily Variety, which began publication September 6, 1933. An excellent source when trying to find older film reviews!

Independent Voices 
Ongoing digitization project. Will include 1,000 alternative magazines, journals, newsletters, and newspapers. Coverage: 1960s-1980s

Search Tips & Tutorials

Database Searching with Boolean Operators:

AND narrows the search because it requires that all keywords be in the results media AND women AND body image
OR broadens the search by looking for either of the words latinx OR latinos OR hispanics OR chicanos OR latinas 
NOT narrows a search by eliminating a certain aspect of a topic media NOT radio
* Using an asterisk is a form of truncation. Truncating means that you are able to search different forms of the same word at the same time. 

America* = America, Americans, American

politic* = politics, political, politic
chican* = chicana, chicanx, chicano/s

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If you are a visual or audiovisual learner, these are very easy, short videos on navigating the library database Academic Search Complete, using Google Scholar, and also some great tips on understanding how to use strategies like truncation and boolean operators for better, more relevant results when you research:

  1. Video: Using Academic Search Complete (2 minutes)
  2. Video: Boolean logic/truncation to help you get better results (2 minutes)
  3. Video: Google Scholar searching (2 minutes)

 

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  • For visual screenshots contextualizing this, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/keyword-subject-search.
  • A keyword search: will search the author, title, subject, and other descriptors of the book, article, or other resource in the search results. Every time you search in Google, that is an example of a keyword search (the natural language and terms we come up with). Keyword searches are easy to use but sometimes you get too many results or results that are way off topic.
  • Subject Heading search: Subject headings function like #hashtags do on Instagram, except that the terms are pre-defined by a published set of vocabularies that librarians use. Subject headings are assigned to books and articles to describe their 'aboutness'. What is also very useful as a researcher is that subject headings are maintained by Library of Congress and so the same terms you use for research at UCI Libraries could be applied at other research libraries in North America.
  • Critical Viewpoint: Because Subject Headings were first created a very long time ago, sometimes the terms and concepts are outdated and inappropriate. There is an amazing documentary about this that looks at a grassroots approach students at Dartmouth made in changing the subject heading "illegal alien" Watch it here.

Examples of Subject Headings for this Course:

Pop Culture

Latinx Pop Culture (book series)
Mexican Americans in popular culture

Motion Pictures & Television
Hispanic Americans in the motion picture industry
Hispanic Americans on television
Mexican Americans in motion pictures

Hispanic Americans in the motion picture industry -- United States -- History -- 20th century

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Research Help & Connecting to Library Resources