Seventh Entry: #2 Research Essay Sources

I found it pretty hard to find any information on my topic because it is very broad, and movie reviews are the only things that came up. I had to change my approach several times on each database. I usually started with “Romantic Comedies in Reality” and when nothing came up I used “romantic comedies perception of reality”, “Romantic comedies effects on women”, “the reality of romantic comedies”, and “how romantic comedies effect women’s emotions”. It was difficult to find anything because I don’t think the topic is generally considered academic, and most of the databases dealt with academic information. When information did show up, it was usually from newspapers and it was hard to distinguish whether it would be a reliable source versus an opinion column. When I tried to narrow my search with certain films such as “the Holiday”, or “When Harry Met Sally”, I found it hard to get anything but praise for the actors and their parts. The realization of my search was that I believe the technology that gave us movies impact the way we look at life in every way. I can’t find how movies have changed our perception or outlook on a certain aspect of our life, such as romance; because romantic movies and movies in general have become such a huge part of our society that it is hard to distinguish what reality is. Most of the databases provided by the library did help me find a few pieces that help support my topic. The search engines were less helpful, especially Google, which was surprising. Doing research for my topic has actually made me more interested in how a woman’s ideal romance has evolved through film and how technology has played a huge impact modern day culture.