Jour 389  College Scholar Project

Jour 390 Department Honors Thesis

Jour 391 Special Topics in Journalism

As noted in Organizing a Thesis, the Review of Literature is a crucial part of any thesis or independent study. In the Review, usually Chapter Two, you look at -- and write about -- what has been done before on your topic.

The process is very valuable. You become familiar with the issues. You also find out how other people have studied your topic. And ultimately, you will add to the literature on your topic with your own research. Indeed, Chapter Five often is a “Discussion” in which you discuss how the results of your study fit with the review of literature.

Depending on your topic, the review of literature chapter can sometimes be long – 10 to 12 pages. Some topics have been studied often. (I have seen and written literature reviews that are more than 100 pages!) 

They are not difficult to write. You can and should do write ups of each book or article you touch in your research. Here's an example of a second chapter in a study of racism and the press:

Walter Lippmann's classic discussion of stereotypes remains an excellent starting point for studies of race and the press. As part of his dissection of the press in the book Public Opinion, Lippmann (1922, pp. 79-156) devoted five chapters to examining public and press reliance on stereotypes. He argued that the stereotype is a form of perception that "imposes" ways of seeing. "For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see," he wrote (p. 81). The stereotype "precedes reason" and thus unavoidably shapes the story of the story-teller.

Since Lippmann's times, others too have studied stereotypes in the press. Smith (1952, pp. 3-4) argues that the press has continued to represent African Americans in narrowly defined, stereotypical roles He wrote:

[block quote here] More than 70 years since Lippmann so carefully traced the problem (if not the solution), scholars continue to find that the news still casts up the experiences of people of color -- in particular, African Americans -- in ways that create and maintain racist stereotypes. It's not difficult to find evidence of this. Any nightly news show, any cop drama will provide you with stereotypes.

You can go on like this for pages, sometimes devoting 2-5 pages to the work of one author, if that work is especially important to your own research. In this way, you familiarize yourself and your reader with work in the field. And you prepare yourself for your own study.