|
Criteria
|
Sensational
|
Popular
|
Substantive
News or
General Interest
|
Trade
or
Technical
|
Scholarly
|
|
Examples:
|
National Enquirer
Globe
Star
|
People Weekly
Redbook
GQ
|
National Geographic
Business Week
Organic Gardener
|
Archaeology
Geotimes
Aviation Week & Space Technology
|
Journal/ Am Medical Assn
Harvard Business Review
Nature
|
|
Layout or
Formatting
|
Eye-grabbing. Usually
published on newsprint.
|
Slick paper, lots of color,
attractive layout.
|
Slick paper,
attractive layout.
|
Attractive appearance.
Slick or plain paper.
|
Very plain and serious
looking. Typically uses plain paper.
|
|
Images
|
A great number of
photos & illustrations to get your attention.
|
Has many color photographs & graphics to pique
your interest.
|
Has photographs & graphics to add visual
appeal.
|
May have some
illustrative color or black and white photos & graphics
|
Minimal, plain graphics used to
illustrate or explain information. Color used sparingly.
|
|
Advertising
|
Extensive advertising
for a wide range of products.
|
A great deal of ads
for a wide range of products.
|
Moderate number of ads
for a range of products.
|
Moderate product &
service ads targeted to a specific profession or field.
|
None, or very
selective, targeting other scholars.
|
|
Language
|
Plain and easy to
read.
|
Plain language, fairly
easy to read.
|
Plain language, but
often assuming a higher level of education and/or familiarity with the
topic.
|
Uses terminology and
jargon of the field, but less formally.
|
Uses terminology,
jargon and the language of the discipline area.
|
|
Depth and
Breadth of Publications
|
Very shallow coverage of a wide
variety of topics.
|
Fairly shallow
coverage of a wide variety of topics.
|
Shallow to moderate
coverage of a more narrowly defined range of topics.
|
Shallow to moderate
coverage with topics of interest to a particular field.
|
In-depth. Narrow range
of topics covered.
|
|
Depth and
Breadth of Articles
|
Very shallow treatment.
|
Fairly shallow.
|
Shallow to moderately
in-depth exploration of a topic.
|
Shallow to moderately
in-depth excoriation of a topic.
|
Usually extremely
narrow in focus as articles go into great depth.
|
|
Credibility
|
None.
|
Limited.
|
Moderate.
|
Fairly high.
|
Very high,
particularly if peer-reviewed.
|
|
Readership
|
General public.
|
General public.
|
Educated public.
|
Assumed to have some
training in the field.
|
Assumed to have a
background in the same field.
|
|
Article Length
|
Short.
|
Short.
|
Short and long.
|
Short and long.
|
Mostly long.
|
|
Sources Cited
|
Sources not cited.
|
Sources usually not cited.
|
Sometimes cited in the
text only.
|
Often cited in the
text, sometimes with footnotes or a bibliography.
|
Extensive citations to
sources, with footnotes or text references & bibliography.
|
|
Authors
|
Staff writers.
|
Staff or free-lance.
|
Staff or free-lance.
|
Staff or freelance
writers working in the field.
|
Written by scholars or
researchers in the field.
|
|
Purpose
|
Provide entertainment.
|
Provide entertainment.
|
Provide general
information.
|
Provide news &
other items (like job ads) for those in a particular field.
|
To report on original
research and to advance scholarship in a field.
|
|
Publishers
|
Published by
commercial enterprises.
|
Published by
commercial enterprises.
|
Usually published by
commercial enterprises.
|
Often published by
professional or trade associations.
|
Usually published by
professional, trade, or research organizations.
|
|
Primary or
Secondary Source?
|
Articles are secondary
sources.
|
Articles are secondary
sources.
|
Articles are usually
secondary sources.
|
Articles are mostly
secondary sources.
|
Articles reporting
original research are primary sources.
|