The internet is an enormous storage unit of all the information you could ever need. However, it is difficult at times to get to it directly. What is more, some sources are paid for, and if you only need it once, paying to gain access it is just not worth the hassle.
One of the best research tools I’ve come across is Factiva. It is a paid for service, but we, as students of Westminster, have access to it via the library portal.
When doing my research for essays and campaigns, I sometimes need to quote a reputable newspaper, as this adds to the paper I’m writing. Some of them, sadly, have paywalls – think ‘The Times’. But Factiva helps a lot in this case: it contains all the news articles that appeared on the day, free or paid. Just enter the title of the article, and it appears on your screen, no more paywalls!
It is very useful for gaining access to quality news articles. It is reliable and a lot more convenient than buying a hard copy of a newspaper. It is great for comparing views of different journalists and news outlets.
I find this service one of the most useful tools for research, yet it is helpful daily as well. Whenever I see an interesting article online, or want to see the different views in the press of an issue, Factiva is very useful. Find Factiva here!
Tell me if you’ve ever used Factiva in the comments. Or do you have a way of accessing restricted articles of your own? Let me know!
Read a lot, and enjoy!
Network Society and the Media 
Honestly, yes I knew we can access Factiva through university’s library, but I never checked it out since today. It looks like a very useful source.
Thanks for bringing it up and making it sound interesting!
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I agree with you all along and certainly Factiva has always proven to be effective and efficient.
As various resources are merged into one database, it certainly gives you the ability to gain an in-depth and diverse insight on topics and issues. Furthermore, as you mentioned, being able to compare different views enhances the critical thinking!
Another great online resource subscribed by University of Westminster is Statista! Very useful when it comes to stats & figures.
http://www.statista.com/
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Databases sources like this are SO important! I’m really glad that we students have access through Westminster. At my home university, our library system provides dozens of databases for us to search through, and each database has a different focus, such as news and journalism or academic papers. It’s a really great tool that schools can provide because without this access or platform, I don’t think a lot of students would know that they exist. Of course we know that the internet hosts anything and everything we could probably ever think of, but if we have no way of accessing these resources then they just kinda hang out there in internet limbo. I didn’t know Factiva existed but I’ll definitely be using it for my academic papers this semester!
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