Is your mailbox stuffed with shiny advertisements for this election season? This post will show you how to access newspaper articles to evaluate candidates using newspaper articles. If you can support your local news outlet it will help your community, but for occasional information needs, you can access newspaper articles through the UW Libraries.

Local news outlets have an interest in reflecting the needs of their readers, who are in turn the constituents of a local official. They research a candidate’s work and voting history in their elected positions, and interview the candidates to determine their endorsement. The justification of their endorsement includes reasons for their choice, and through this a voter can determine if the newspaper’s reasoning aligns with their own values. Endorsements are different from election reporting, in which the newspaper may report on the way the election is shaping up or fact check statements by the candidates.

For example, a search for information on candidates for Washington State Supreme Court encountered a paywall with The Seattle Times. To find this article, start at the UW Libraries search page, and look for the Newspaper title, as shown below.

 

When you click on the record, it will take you to a section called “View It.” if you haven’t already, you will need to log in with your netID to access the database.

The Newsbank Access World News Database has articles from many newspapers, but this search was for The Seattle Times, so that appears above the search bar, along with the dates available. From here, type some words that are likely to appear in the title or article.

 

The results are in reverse chronological order, and scrolling down, the article about Washington State Supreme Court nominees is available to view.

There are some important things to note when searching for a news article in this database. First, this database can be slow to load your results, so patience is helpful. There can be slightly different dates associated with the article. Newsbank may use the date it was published online, in print, or the date it was last updated. Be aware that the title may not exactly match the article as it appeared in the paper. Finally, there can be a delay of a few days between the article’s publication and its availability in Newsbank.

Using the library database to access a news article when you hit a paywall in your search is a powerful tool for election research or schoolwork. Give it a try and use our 24/7 chat help if you need additional support. And for more information about voting, check out our Vote 2020 Guide.