Social Studies Subject Guide: Dialogue for Democracy

Links for Journalists

These links were selected and described by a group of student journalists in the Dialogue for Democracy class for their usefulness in the class. Last update:  October 2024.

POLITICS
Real Clear Polling
This source could be useful to journalists focusing on Politics. It provides polls updated daily on the presidential debate, and support for legislative initiatives to name a few. This would be helpful to CatlinSpeak writers focused on writing about Politics.

PolitiFact
This source is used to fact-check opinion writers and other editorial writers. In addition, it corrects major news figures such as Tucker Carlson and has a meter of how accurate and truthful their information is. 

Monkey Cage
Monkey Cage uses the perspectives of political scientists on politics. Part of the Washington Post, which appears as Monkey Cage, shows a variety of topics from social media to voting rights. I think this site could potentially be useful for some background information.

ECONOMIC STATISTICS / FINANCIAL INFO
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is a source that shares many economic statistics from the unemployment rate to U.S. / Euro Foreign Exchange Rate. This website also allows users to search for specific statistics that they may be interested in. That being said, I don’t think this source would be used commonly within CatlinSpeak unless it was a very specific topic that touched on economics.

SCIENCE
Science News

This website is helpful for science related topics such as space, physics, tech, evolution, and the Earth. The only downside is it makes you sign in/register if you want to search a specific topic.

RESEARCH TOOLS

Daily JSTOR
This source could be useful to journalists to have a large number of academic library sources with more of a historical lens. This could be useful to journalists who want to learn about the context of a phenomenon or topic. What is helpful is there are side tabs with different topics such as Arts & Culture, Politics & History. In addition, there is a search bar that could facilitate quick research.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is one source that can be used to find reputable studies; however, the results might be difficult for students to parse through depending on the subject. Articles that could benefit from Google Scholar would especially be in the realm of science and research-based articles.
Pew Research
This website is very good for politics. It’s described as a think tank.