Is a newspaper article a primary or secondary source?

Newspaper and magazine articles can function as primary or secondary sources depending on how you use them for your research.

In a historical study, for example, you might use contemporary newspaper articles as direct evidence of the time period. In social and communication studies, you might examine the language or content of an article to glean insights into the particular phenomenon under study (e.g., through a content analysis or discourse analysis).

If you are using an article to furnish background information or facts about the topic, the article functions as a secondary source.

Any articles you use should be cited appropriately and included in your references list. You can use QuillBot’s Citation Generator to automatically generate citations for all types of sources.