Sorry for the thread necromancy, but i somehow didn't even see this post the first time around, and thought it deserved a response.
die_kluge said:
I would wager that Dragon magazine would have the best information that you would need. That involves scanning through 200+ issues for relevant information. You could get the Dragon magazine archive on CD-Rom. That goes up to issue 200, I think, or maybe 225.
In all those issues, i can remember one, maybe two, editorials that would be of use for an academic paper about RPGs. And those are both "maybes". Really, not much in Dragon
about RPGs--it's pretty much all content
for RPG.
I also wouldn't be surprised if Time or Newsweek had articles about Dungeons and Dragons. Check your college library for microfiche versions of these publications. Such articles would likely be very old.
And, if the ones i've found and read are any indication, not particularly well-researched or -written. I think i found one article in Newsweek once (probably around '90, give or take 2 years) that sounded like it had been written by someone who knew more about RPGs than having just watched one game for an hour. But still no more than anyone who's played an RPG couldn't write up themselves.
If you want something vaguely accurate from mainstream press, poke around NPR's website and see if you can find audio archive of a segment they did on either Weekend Edition, Morning Edition, Weekend All Things Considered, or This American Life (in descending order of likelihood)--i don't remember for certain which it was. I've got a copy on cassette tape around here somewhere, and it's a pretty good piece, fair and balanced, and with just the right amount of depth for a non-gamer, and only about 10min long.