Session 5: Advanced Nexis and Factiva
By now you’re all experts at using Nexis and Factiva — right? But hey, even experts sometimes need a refresher.
Why we would use Nexis or Factiva instead of Google? Factors include precision, availability of archival news stories, and access to publications that are not freely available on the web.
Here’s a quick review of Nexis and Factiva commands.
| Nexis | Factiva | |
| Headline or lead paragraph | hlead(terms) | hlp=terms |
| Byline | byline(name) | by=name |
| Boolean operators | and, or, and not | and, or, not |
| Proximity operators | w/5, pre/5, w/p | w/5, near5, same |
| Truncation character | ! | * |
| Frequency | atleast4(term) | atleast4 term |
| Length | length > 1000 | wc > 1000 |
| Company | company(name) | co=name |
| Publication | publication(name) | sn=name |
A recent real-life request from a New York Times reporter:
Here is a Nexis search strategy for finding previous incidents. Search by Content Type: News, then go to Advanced Options and select the news categories you’d like to use. Then try this:
hlead(sigma alpha epsilon) and atleast2(sigma alpha epsilon or sae) and raci! and (discipl! or ban! or barr! or expel! or expuls! or suspen! or shut! or sanction!)
Using a transcript search to find video clips
If you wanted to string together a bunch of quotes from Sen. Ted Cruz about Benghazi, you might use this strategy.
In Nexis: go to Search by Content Type: Broadcast Transcripts, and try this:
hlead(ted cruz) and atleast5(cruz) and cruz w/p benghazi
In Factiva: select subject Transcripts and try this:
hlp=(ted cruz) and atleast5 cruz and cruz same benghazi
Some quick tricks for Nexis and Factiva news searching
To find profiles, use one of these formulas:
Nexis: hlead(firstname pre/2 lastname) and atleast5(lastname) and length > 750
Factiva: hlp=(firstname w/2 lastname) and atleast5 lastname and wc > 750
For fast facts on a topic, try this search in Factiva (don’t forget to evaluate the sources): hlp=(factbox and topic)
Finding company information
Nexis: Search by Content Type: Company Dossier
Factiva: Companies/Markets
