Radio/Television/Film Databases
For streaming media, see the streaming media tab.
- Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive index covering the entire spectrum of television and film writing and produced for a broad target audience, from film scholars to general viewers. Subject coverage includes: film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
- FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowOffers in-depth coverage of the world's foremost academic and popular film journals.
- American Film Institute Catalog This link opens in a new windowContains plot summaries, production information, and cast and crew lists from films, plus citations for reviews.
- Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowUS and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to 2000
- Film Scripts Online This link opens in a new windowContains 1,009 scripts by 1,062 writers together with detailed, fielded information on the scenes, characters and people related to the scripts.
- Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new windowVictorian Popular Culture is a resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Listener Historical Archive, 1929-1991 This link opens in a new windowProvides online access to the publication the Listener which ran from 1929 to 1991 and providing print reproduction of BBC radio and television programming as well as discussion of literary and musical programs and book reviews.
- Communication Source This link opens in a new windowOffers content pertaining to communication, linguistics, rhetoric and discourse, speech-language pathology, media studies and related fields. Coverage goes back to 1915.
Related Databases
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window This multidisciplinary database provides access to articles from journals, magazines, and reference sources across all subject areas. Coverage is primarily from 1980 to the present, with some older content.
- Access World News This link opens in a new window Access World News is a comprehensive resource that includes a variety of news publications worldwide. These sources include major national and international newspapers, as well as local and regional titles as well as newswires, blogs, web-only content, videos, journals, magazines, transcripts and more. Access World News is updated daily. This database combines news articles from more than 12,000 sources and over 200 countries. Much of the material in non-English languages has been translated into English, but a significant amount of material is presented in the original language.
- Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window Searchable database of several hundred subject encyclopedias and other reference works across all subject areas, but with particular strengths in the social sciences and humanities. It includes a number of major reference works, and is Northwesterns largest single collection of reference materials. A good source for authoritative background information.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Compiled by the Modern Language Association, the MLA International Bibliography lists articles and books in the fields of literature, language, and linguistics in the modern languages, as well as folklore, film studies, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, and historical aspects of printing and publishing.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window Not all content is available full text to Northwestern community. Searchable database that provides access to the content of journals and ebooks published from over 200 of the world’s most distinguished university presses and scholarly societies. Covers such fields as literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and others. The Premium Collection is MUSE's foremost collection of over 700 high quality, peer reviewed, interdisciplinary journals from leading university presses, not-for-profit publishers and prestigious scholarly societies.
- Proquest Black Newspapers This link opens in a new window A part of of ProQuest US Newsstream, a collection of nine current Black newspapers from across the United States from 1989-present. Some full text available. Titles include Afro-American Red Star, Call & Post, Chicago Defender, Houston Post, Michigan Chronicle, Muslim Journal, New Journal & Guide, New York Amsterdam News, and Los Angeles Sentinel.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Full-text and full-image articles from: The Atlanta Constitution (1868-1984), Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010), The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-2010), The Baltimore Sun (1837-1996), The Boston Globe (1872-1990), Chicago Defender (1909 - 2010), Chicago Tribune (1849-2013), Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832 - 1953), Christian Science Monitor (1908-2009), The Cincinnati Enquirer (1841-1922), Cleveland Call and Post (1934–2010), Detroit Free Press (1831-1999), The Guardian and the Observer (1791-2003), Irish Times and the Weekly Irish Times (1859-2020), The Jewish Advocate (1905-1990), The Jewish Exponent (1887-1990), Kansas City Call (1919-2010), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2010), Los Angeles Times (1881-2014), Louisville Defender (1951-2010), Michigan Chronicle (1939-2010), Minneapolis Star Tribune (1867-2001), New York Amsterdam News (1922-2010), The New York Times (1851-2018), New York Tribune / Herald Tribune (1841-1962), Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2010), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2010), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010), The Times of India (1838-2001), The Wall Street Journal (1889-2010), The Washington Post (1877-2006), Le Monde (1944-2000), Indianapolis Star (1903-2004)
- Readers' Guide Retrospective 1890-1982 This link opens in a new window Indexes articles published in the most important popular magazines published in the United States from 1890 until 1982.Provides some links to full text. A key resource for identifying what was published in the popular press during this era.
- Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window Full text of the Times of London from 1785 to 2014.
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window With more than 2 million entries, PQD&T offers comprehensive listings for U.S. doctoral dissertations back to 1861, with extensive coverage of dissertations from many non-U.S. institutions. A number of masters theses are also listed. Thousands of dissertations are available full text, and abstracts are included for dissertations from the mid-1980s forward.
- EThoS - Electronic Theses Online Service This link opens in a new window EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) provides comprehensive listings for doctoral theses from over 100 institutions in the United Kingdom, dating back to the 17th century. Many theses are available in PDF full text, and it possible to request that those not already available be digitized.
- Classic Brazilian Cinema Online, 1913–1974 This link opens in a new windowA unique collection of digitized historical film magazines from the 1910s to the 1960s, providing students and researchers with easy access to rare an previously dispersed sources documenting the cinematographic history of the biggest country in Latin America, Brazil. – Publisher
- Through the Camera Lens: The Moving Picture World and the Silent Cinema Era, 1907-1927 This link opens in a new windowFull text of the film journalMoving Picture World, 1907-1927.
Access Databases @ Home
Off-campus access is available for all the databases.
For best results, use a VPN (virtual private network) connection. This makes off campus Internet traffic appear as if it is originating from on campus, and is a very secure, reliable connection.
For instructions on how to set up VPN, go here: Help with VPN Settings