Is a wire-service considered to be an "Author" when citing Newspaper Articles?

By History-Hunter on Thu, 09/10/2020 - 12:38

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Dear Editor;

1) When citing a newspaper article picked up from a wire-service, is the wire-service (e.g. Canadian Press or "CP") considered to be the "Author" for the purposes of citing the associated article per the QuickCheck Model for Newspaper Articles, Online Archives?

2) When one sees an article beginning with two key headings, is the second considered part of the "Title" for the purpose of the previously noted QuickCheck Model? If so; what punctuation is used to separate the two? An example is, "

     Returning Canadian Troops

      Canada's Importance Growing, Says Britisher

HALIFAX, Jan. 2 (CP) – The first contingent of Canadian overseas veterans to arrive back home in 1946 – 5,618 sailors, soldiers and airmen – was aboard the troopship Mauretania as she steamed into port here Tuesday night.

...

Although not EE-style, it is likely helpful if I provide Turabian style citation supplied by Proquest:

"January 2, 1946 (Page 1 of 18)." Calgary Herald (1939-2010), Jan 02, 1946. 1, https://search.proquest.com/docview/2252976031?accountid=46584.

Submitted byEEon Thu, 09/10/2020 - 21:48

History-Hunter, yes, if the by-line is "CP" (Canadian Press), "AP" (Associated Press) or a similar wire-service, then the service is the author.

And yes, in a headline such as the pair above, the first line is the title, the second line is the subtitle. It's best to cite them both to give the best representation of the content of the article.

But no, EE would not follow the ProQuest example—which may be billed as a Turabian style citation but does not adhere to Turabian. In the first place, the citation provided is a source-list citation, not a reference note citation. The name of the actual article is missing. The citation is also repetitive and redundant, with different formats used for each of the repetitive items. And it presents ProQuest's collection name in the place of the actual ID of the newspaper. There is no newspaper called "Calgary Herald (1939-2010)."

All things considered (without being able to access the actual webpage), EE would combine the elements using (in layer 1) the standard format for citing newspapers; and (in layer 2), the standard format for citing standalone publications such as websites or books.

     1. Canadian Press (CP), "Returning Canadian Troops: Canada's Importance Growing, Says Britisher," Calgary Herald, 2 January 1946, p. 1; online, ProQuest (https://search.proquest.com/docview/2252976031?accountid=46584 : accessed 10 September 2020).

 

Submitted byHistory-Hunteron Fri, 09/11/2020 - 13:24

Dear Edior;

 

Thank you.

Whatever entity is shown in the byline, even if not a person, is used as the "Author". 

The question about how to punctuate the title – sub-title pair for use a "Title" is now clear. One uses the colon.

The Proquest citation was not something I intended to use but was only provided in case someone wished to see the article. I agree that it is inadequate. But coupled with what I included above the article could be found to evaluate how one would correctly cite it.

 

Your proposed citation raises a few small questions.

a) Should one not also include a column number, if the article does not cover the bulk of a page?

b) Is it ever necessary to include the total number of pages in the form p. 1 of 18? I tend to think of this as not adding much value, but I'm sure someone will ask me about it.

c) Proquest is a subscription site and the library-access account id is shown in the URL. This is perhaps not be a great thing to do, since the noted URL may not work for others. Note that the number following the base URL appears to only take one to the start of the newspaper. Would it not be better for me to just use the base URL for the site (https://search.proquest.com), since I've already stated the newspaper, issue date and article title? I'm sure a reader would intuitively use that data as search citeria.

d) Should one mention somewhere that the online data was accessed via a library account? I seem to remember seeing a note about this, either in the EE book or on the associated EE site.

I should mention that I made an error in the title and dropped the first three words. I've corrected this in the following, added the column number, modified the URL as noted and added a short note about accessing Proquest. Does this work?

     1. Canadian Press (CP), "Morrison Lands With Returning Canadian Troops: Canada's Importance Growing, Says Britisher," Calgary Herald, 2 January 1946, p. 1, col. 4; online, ProQuest (https://search.proquest.com : accessed 10 September 2020). Proquest is a subscription site, but access is often freely available in public libraries.

Submitted byEEon Wed, 09/16/2020 - 09:03

H-H:

Question a): Yes. See EE 2.55 (general principles) and 14.10 (newspapers, specifically).

Question b): No, as a general rule, there's no need to include the total number of pages. This is often done when citing images of a digitized collection—many of which have very similar names, as with courthouse records. It's done as another means by which users can check to ensure they have digitally located the right collection.

Question c): Yes.

Question d): If one needs that information in order to access the record, then yes.

And yes, you're final draft of the citation is handled well.