This guide is intended to help students with their research in the History of Broadcasting course taught by Professor Donna Acerra, with an emphasis on the media history project and identifying sources in the library's collections for your chosen topic. Review the assignment prompt and basic guidelines below and then use the other pages of the guide to help you with your research.
Your class also has an embedded librarian in Blackboard, who you can contact directly or meet with for more help. If your embedded librarian is not available, you can work with other NCC librarians by visiting us in person at the research help desks in the libraries, messaging us through our Ask the Librarian chat, emailing your questions, calling us, or scheduling a Book a Librarian appointment.
askthelibrarian@northampton.edu
(610) 861-5359
Request a Book a Librarian research consultation to meet or video chat on a day and time convenient to your schedule.
The library has compiled answers to our most commonly asked questions in our Library Q&As. If you don't find what you are looking for posted there, please send us your question.
Do you need someone to read over your paper or help you with citations? Visit the Learning Center or make an appointment online to meet with a tutor.
They also have many guides and handouts available to help you create organized and grammatically correct papers.
For your final project in this class, you will be selecting a person or theme from your professor's "They Were There Too” topic suggestion list to research in detail. With the information you learned about that topic through your research, you'll complete an outline, write a narrative script, and then create a podcast (if you're a Media major) or a narrated Pecha Kucha 20 x 20 slide presentation.
As part of your research, you'll need to identify a minimum of 4 usable sources to help you tell the story of your person or analyze your theme. Write a question your podcast or presentation will answer -- this can help you narrow your focus as you research. When you submit your outline, your 4 (or more) sources should be included and cited in MLA format.
Review the assignment's full details in your Blackboard course site to make sure you aren't missing any other pieces.
The library's collection is rich with materials about the history of broadcasting, radio, and history. Want to browse through some of what we have? Need some inspiration to help you decide on a specific topic to research? See some highlighted resources below.
Interested in borrowing one or more of these items? Visit our collections in-person or request items using our Library to Go service. Entries and chapters of titles in the reference collections will need to be photocopied or digitally scanned. Work with a librarian if you have questions or need help.
Available at Bethlehem in Reserves and at Pocono.
Helpful for: History of Black shows on network television.
Available at Bethlehem
After no less an authority than Edward R. Murrow told her there was no place for her in broadcasting, Pauline Frederick cracked the good old boys' club through determination and years of hard work, eventually becoming a trusted voice to millions of television viewers and the first woman to become a network news correspondent.
Available at Bethlehem
Barbara Walters was a force from the time television was exploding on the American scene in the 1960s to its waning dominance in a new world of competition from streaming services and social media, half a century later. Walters is on the short list of those who have left the biggest imprints on television news and on our culture, male or female. Based on 150 interviews and extensive archival research.
Available at Bethlehem
In the years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, women in the workplace still found themselves relegated to secretarial positions or locked out of jobs entirely, especially in the news business. But when National Public Radio came along in the 1970s, four remarkable women came along and blew it off the hinges. Based on extensive interviews.
Available at Bethlehem
Includes: Gertrude Berg, Agnes Nixon, Irna Phillips, Barbara Walters, Pauline Frederick, Eunice Randall, Anne and Frank Hummert, Bertha Brainerd, Cristina Saralegui, Cathy Liggins Hughes, Joan Ganz Cooney, Ora Nichols, Gracie Allen, Mary Livingstone, Portland Hoffa, Mary Margaret McBride, Edythe Meserand, others.
Available at Bethlehem.
Includes: Eddie Anderson, Al Benson, Jack L. Cooper, Sherman "Jocko" Maxwell, Hal Jackson, Richard Durham, and others.
Available at Bethlehem
Includes: Jack Cooper, Paul Robeson, Richard Durham, Cathy Hughes, Al Benson, Georgie Woods, Peggy Mitchell, Hal Jackson, Jocko Henderson, Mary Mason, Wesley South, Martha Jean "the Queen" Steinberg, and others
Available at Bethlehem.
The magical union of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz created I Love Lucy--the greatest, most enduring situation comedy in television history. Yet the overwhelming pressures of fame, backstage battles, oversized egos, and Desi's philandering and drinking led to the destruction of their star-crossed, tempestuous marriage--but never their love for each other.
Available at Bethlehem
Includes: Peggy Charren, Gertrude Berg, Pauline Frederick, others
Available at Bethlehem.
Includes: Dorothy Brunson
Available at Bethlehem in Reference
Available at Bethlehem
Includes: Barbara Walters, Pauline Frederick, and others
A representative history of the American women who surmounted every impediment put in their way to do journalism's most valued work. The text discusses the collective fight for equity in the news room and in the field from the gentle stirrings of the late 1800s through the legal battles of the 1970s, to the #MeToo movement and today's racial and gender disparities.
Available at Bethlehem
Includes these chapters: "The Quaker girl turns modern" : how adwomen promoted history, 1910-1940, Broadcasting yesteryear : women's history on commercial radio, 1930-1945, Gallant American women : feminist historians and the mass media, 1935-1950
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
3 Volumes, including: 1. A tower in Babel, to 1933 2. The golden web, 1933 to 1953 3. The image empire, from 1953
Available at Bethlehem
Available in Reference at Bethlehem
Available in Reference at Bethlehem
3 Volumes
Available in Reference at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
DVD available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
DVD available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem and Monroe
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem and Monroe
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem and Monroe
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available in Reference at Bethlehem
4 volumes
Available in Reference at Bethlehem
Available in at Bethlehem & Pocono
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available at Bethlehem
Available in Oversize at Bethlehem
Available in Reference at Bethlehem and Monroe
Available online
Available online
2 volumes
Available in Reference at Bethlehem
Available in Reference at Bethlehem
