Week 3: Assignment and Student Response

ThursdayMay 17 at 2:21pm

Manage Discussion Entry

After reading the required material for this discussion post I found three examples of government document databases are USA.gov, Federal Register, and Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. All three of these databases find facts and statistics, provide reality checks, provide background, and help find experts. USA.gov is the major gateway that provides people with millions of web pages from federal and state governments. This site provides information you may not find on commercial web sites. Federal Register provides people with current issues and documents pertaining to it. Also, provides us the opportunity to search for other documents. Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents consists of documents that are official publications of materials released by the White House Press Secretary. This website provides current and past documents. These databases are what journalists need when they are trying to write stories that require official documents and evidence.

There are some advantages and disadvantages of these databases. Some advantages are; information dates back further, accumulation of records, more targeted searching, and using these databases can be faster than using other ones. Some disadvantages are; tracking down source documents and interpretation of data. I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. However, older documents can make it harder to locate sources of information. To be honest, I’m excited to use these databases in future assignments. I never really knew about these sites and I feel they will help my writing greatly when it comes to government related articles or assignments.

Heather Chavez

Paul, N., & Hansen, K. (2007). Computer-Assisted research: Information strategies and tools for journalists. Columbia, MO: Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.