Citation databases contain bibliographic descriptions of journal articles, conference proceedings, books, audio-visual materials, newspapers, and others. Many of them provide access to the document's abstract and the link where you may download the full text (depending on the library's subscriptions).

Some others are full-text databases where you can read the abstract and the whole material (e.g.: JSTOR, Academic search premier, Ebook central Proquest, Oxford Bibliographies Cinema and Media Studies, The Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of social and political movements ).

Databases are helpful to consult because:

They have various search functionality (much better than Google Scholar!) so that you can customize and refine your search.
The content is curated by experts and subject librarians in the field. Besides a multidisciplinary database (e.g: Scopus, Web of Science), you can also find subject-specific databases.
Their citation tools provide mostly accurate citations. You can also find other important information, such as the author's affiliations, citing and cited articles, and even the 'impacts' of the works.
They have thesauri, containing scholarly terms used by the authors and in the fields. You can take a peek and use the keywords to improve your search terms.

For a complete list of databases at the UvA, see Database Selector: https://databases.uba.uva.nl.

For databases that are commonly used in Media Studies, see Databases (uva.nl)

Recommended databases

Here are my selection of several useful databases for Media Studies

Multidisciplinary:

Scopus

Web of science (inside also has a specific database: Arts and Science Humanity Index)

Academic search premier (inside also: Library, Information Science, and Technology Abstract; Communication and Mass Media Complete)

Gale General OneFile (beside academics and news, contain also magazines and small numbers of news video)

Research Methods: The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods

Encyclopedia: Oxford bibliographies. Communication - University of Amsterdam (uva.nl), Oxford bibliographies. Cinema and media studies - University of Amsterdam (uva.nl)

Film and Television:

Cinema Context : film in Nederland vanaf 1896 : een encyclopedie van de filmcultuur - University of Amsterdam (uva.nl)

History of the American Cinema - University of Amsterdam (uva.nl)

Proquest Performing Arts Periodicals Database

Proquest Screen Studies Collection. - University of Amsterdam (uva.nl)