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Commentary, Policy, & Opinion Resources: About This Guide

The information in this guide is based on documents used in a course titled AMC500: Research Foundations taught by Robert L. Houbeck, Jr. at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Academic libraries are committed to building and maintaining collections that reflect a broad range of political, social, and cultural viewpoints. As such, libraries assemble an intellectually diverse body of resources, such as weekly magazines, quarterlies, newsletters, journals, and websites. Librarians, appropriately, are averse to labeling periodicals by ideological orientation. But the reality is that many periodicals do have discernible editorial points of view; and in the American public square, those tend to fall on the left and on the right side of the political continuum.

In this guide, you will find two lists of periodicals, journals, websites, and organizations where you will find information that is most likely written from a “left” or “right” side point of view. Many of these resources also contain articles with no particular ideological perspective.  Some also include sections with pro/con debates, either as a regular feature or occasionally. But, the main content of these resources tends to cluster on one side or the other of the left/right spectrum. Help in spotting misleading news is also included.