Web Resources for Journalists
Page 1 of 1
Web Resources for Journalists
Reporting tools
Reporter’s Desktop
www.reporter.org/desktop
Search engines are grouped together here, along with explanations of how to use each best. Duff Wilson also provides easy access to mapping, people, phone and e-mail searches, some of the better reference sites.
News & Observer’s NeRD on the Road
metalab.unc.edu/slanews/intranets/nerdroad
The (Raleigh, N.C.) News and Observer's intranet site for their reporters use.
Journalist’s Guide to the Internet
reporter.umd.edu
Christopher Callahan is associate dean of journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park and author of "A Journalist's Guide to the Internet" This is his site.
Bill Dedman’s Power Reporting
Resources for Journalists
www.powerreporting.com
Thousands of free research tools, the father of computer-assisted reporting boasts, and no ads. This one gets a star. Check out GuideStar under Nonprofits; and Treasure Hunt under Training. Who am I kidding? Check it all out.
The Journalist's Toolbox
www.journaliststoolbox.com/
"The Journalist's Toolbox started in 1996 as a page linked off of one of Mike Reilley's Newswriting class syllabi at Northwestern University. Over the years, Reilley and his students kept adding links to the one-page site. Then professors from other universities shared links. Then working professionals ... You get the idea."
Finding Almost Anybody
www.nreisner.com
A wealth of handy tips and links to finding virtually anyone on the planet, past or present.
MapTech
www.maptech.com/
"The largest online mapping resource for topographic maps and charts for land, sea, and air. Browse, view, print, and email the maps for free. "
EmbassyWorld
www.embassyworld.com/maps//
Claims to offer every online map to every country in the world. You be the judge. Note: the main site (www.embassyworld.com)is a directory for every embassy and consulate.
Acronym Finder
www.acronymfinder.com/
"The web's most comprehensive database of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms. 212,000+ definitions!"
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.
www.bartleby.com/141/index.html
The grammer guru online. "It gives in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style and concentrates attention on the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated."
SearchSystems.net
www.searchsystems.net/
Sreenath Sreenivasan, Columbia University journalism professor: "A good way to find public information online is by using this service from Pacific Information Systems. With links to almost 5,000 public records databases, it's the largest free collection of public records databases on the Web."
Computer-Assisted Reporting
www.ire.org/datalibrary/databases/index.html
How about a library of online databases? Gold.
Libraryspot.com
www.libraryspot.com/
A free virtual library resource center for educators and students, librarians and their patrons, families, businesses and just about anyone exploring the Web for valuable research information.
The Quotations Page
www.quotationspage.com/
Search for quotes by keyword. This is fun for birthday cards, co-worker pick-me-ups or to track down that elusive quote. I would double-check once you've found what you want, as the accuracy varies.
Schools of Thought
Associated Press Managing Editors
www.apme.com
"APME works in partnership with AP to improve the wire service's performance. … We conduct regular wire watches to evaluate AP's performance and help select AP Member Showcase photos of the month. Our elected officers serve as national leaders in speaking out on journalism issues. APME is on the front line in setting ethical and journalistic standards for newspapers and in the battle for freedom of information and the First Amendment."
American Society of Newspaper Editors
www.asne.org/
"The American Society of Newspaper Editors is the leading organization of daily newspaper editors in the Americas. It is primarily an organization for its members to share ideas. It also carries on a variety of programs, projects and initiatives for the good of journalism through its committees."
American Copy Editor Society
www.copydesk.org
This professional organization of copy editors, "is dedicated to improving the quality of journalism and the working lives of journalists. Our main purpose is to educate our members--and others in the news business – in ways of improving the standards of copy editing and increasing the value the news industry places on our craft."
Investigative Reporters & Editors
www.reporter.org
A database of beat resources is just one of many sections to peruse.
Oregon Newspaper Publishers Assoc.
www.orenews.com
A lending library, Web resources, city and county info and award listings with art.
Washington Newspaper Publishers Assoc.
www.wnpa.com/
In addition to lists of papers, there are reporter's links, a newsroom legal guide and, wait for it, the Food Safety Forum Media Resource Guide.
FACSNET
www.facsnet.org
There's a weath of information here. Look at the section for jounalists on Sept. 11. Also click on Internet Resources and find a searchable database. One of the group's purposes is to maintain "online resources designed to help journalists find information they need and to understand the subjects upon which they report. "
Poynter Institute
www.poynter.org
"Everything you need to be a better journalist."
American Journalism Review
www.ajr.org
The magazine. For a chuckle, click on Take Two.
Editor & Publisher
www.mediainfo.com/
News about the industry
It’s the Reader
www.readersfirst.com/
This site is the resource center for Readers First, an E.W. Scripps initiative. It serves readership-builders in all departments of our newspapers. Any friend of newspapers is welcome to visit and contribute. Look into the Turning the Tide Case Studies, the seed for our own It's the Reader program.
Math Mainly
Niles Online | Statistics
www.nilesonline.com/stats
"Here, described in plain English, are some basic concepts in statistics that every writer should know." His data-finding site is also worthy.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
www.bls.gov/home.htm
More than you could ever need to know about most governmental statistics. Yikes is the word. "The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. "
Cost of Living Calculator
www.NewsEngin.com/neFreeTools.nsf/CPIcalc
"This gizmo uses the historical Consumer Price Index for urban consumers (CPI-U) to convert dollar values between different years. This allows you to compare the real buying power of historical dollar amounts, adjusted for inflation."
Percent Change Calculator
www.NewsEngin.com/neFreeTools.nsf/
PercentChange/formPercentChange
Don't let your math skills damage the story.
Convert-me.com
http://www.convert-me.com/en/
Found by Carl Earl searching for a conversion from ounces to kegs. Hmmmmm? "Interactive calculators for many measurement systems both commonly used like metric and U.S. Avoirdupois and quite exotic like Ancient Greek and Roman."
Martindales' Reference Desk | Other calculators
www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators.html
Just when you thought there wasn't a calculator to do THAT kind of math ....
Search engines
www.google.com
The master of all search engines, in my book, an added bonus is "Google takes a snapshot of each page examined as it crawls the web and caches these as a back-up in case the original page is unavailable. If you click on the 'Cached' link, you will see the web page as it looked when we indexed it."
www.dogpile.com
"With Dogpile metasearch, you have access to not just one search engine, but many of the Web's most popular search tools, including: Web search: Ah-ha, AltaVista, Direct Hit, Dogpile Web Catalog, ePilot, FindWhat, GoTo.com, Kanoodle, LookSmart, Open Directory, RealNames, SearchHippo, Sprinks by About, ValleyAlley and Yahoo!" Owned by Infospace.
www.metacrawler.com
"MetaCrawler queries many of the Web's top search engines simultaneously … ranking them by relevance. MetaCrawler draws upon the databases of a large number of the Web's best search engines. MetaCrawler simultaneously sends queries to AltaVista, DirectHit Excite, FindWhat, GoTo, and LookSmart, among others." Owned by Infospace, too.
www.rocketnews.com
This engine finds current news from all around the Internet. It automatically searches major online national and city newspapers, newswires, magazines, trade publications, and press releases.
www.altavista.com
"AltaVista checks the words you enter against a massive (half-million entry) phrase dictionary to determine which words go together naturally, and automatically treats them as phrases."
www.lycos.com
Lycos.com "offers Internet users a fast, easy and efficient way to make sense of the Internet and manage its vast resources. It combines leading Web search and navigation resources, deep content in vertical areas, communications and personalization tools, and a complete shopping center."
Directories
www.yahoo.com
Duff Wilson says: Yahoo is a directory compiled by professional indexers. It will almost always find the official site on the subject you want, and it generously takes you to most the other top search engines for additional rounds of searching without having to type in the key words over and over.
Who writes/owns this stuff?
www.whois.net
Find out who owns and operates any domain name on the Internet by typing in the URL. Also gives you contact information.
Get the government
www.firstgov.com
The U.S. government's one-stop shopping spot.
www.govspot.com
Loads of links to government agencies and sites about what's going on politically.
www.stateline.org
Stateline.org was founded in order to help journalists, policy makers and engaged citizens become better informed about innovative public policies. Run by the Pew Center on the States,
Census Bureau
www.census.gov
Try the American FactFinder.
The fun stuff
www.theonion.com
www.dumblaws.com
www.howstuffworks.com
http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html
Internet movie database
us.imdb.com/search
Legal stuff
American Bar Association
www.abanet.org/
Bureau of Justice Statistics
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
Federal Bureau of Investigation
www.fbi.gov
FindLaw
www.findlaw.com
Legal Information Institute
www.law.cornell.edu/states/
National Center for State Courts
www.ncsconline.org
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
www.albany.edu/sourcebook/
Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion
www-camlaw.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/
A Web "Journal dedicated to the interaction of church and state on a global scale. …its goal is to explore how law impacts different religions, and reciprocally, how various religions impact the law."
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
www.uspto.gov/
Search patents and trademarks as well as cruise the Electronic Freedom of Information Act area related to such.
Genealogy
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
www.familysearch.org/
East Oregonian Publishing Co
Blue Mountain Eagle
www.bluemountaineagle.com
Oregon's oldest weekly newspaper, serving Grant County since 1868.
Capital Press
www.capitalpress.com
Capital Press is an independent weekly farm and ranch newspaper that serves California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and other western states.
Chinook Observer
www.chinookobserver.com
The weekly news source for Washington's Long Beach Peninsula since 1900.
The Daily Astorian
www.dailyastorian.com
The daily newspaper for Oregon's northwest corner and Washington's Long Beach Peninsula.
East Oregonian
www.eastoregonian.com
Seven-day newspaper serving Morrow, Gilliam and Umatilla counties since 1875.
Wallowa County Chieftain
www.wallowacountychieftain.com
Weekly newspaper serving Wallowa County in northeast Oregon since 1884.
Farm Seller
www.farmseller.com
Capital Press' exclusive real estate listing service for agricultural lands
East Oregon Real Estate & Home Builders Guide
www.eastoregonrealestate.com/
Real estate listing service at the East Oregonian.
Lewis and Clark Northwest
www.lewisandclarknw.com
Company's Web site promoting its Lewis and Clark guide book
Coast Weekend
www.coastweekend.com
The Daily Astorian's arts and entertainment guide
Discovery Coast
www.discoverycoast.com
Chinook Observer's visitors' guide online
wallowa.com
www.wallowa.com
The Wallowa County Chieftain's visitor guide and links to area businesses
Seaside-Sun.com
www.seaside-sun.com
Community journalism site for Seaside, Oregon. Articles and photos and blogs submitted b
Reporter’s Desktop
www.reporter.org/desktop
Search engines are grouped together here, along with explanations of how to use each best. Duff Wilson also provides easy access to mapping, people, phone and e-mail searches, some of the better reference sites.
News & Observer’s NeRD on the Road
metalab.unc.edu/slanews/intranets/nerdroad
The (Raleigh, N.C.) News and Observer's intranet site for their reporters use.
Journalist’s Guide to the Internet
reporter.umd.edu
Christopher Callahan is associate dean of journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park and author of "A Journalist's Guide to the Internet" This is his site.
Bill Dedman’s Power Reporting
Resources for Journalists
www.powerreporting.com
Thousands of free research tools, the father of computer-assisted reporting boasts, and no ads. This one gets a star. Check out GuideStar under Nonprofits; and Treasure Hunt under Training. Who am I kidding? Check it all out.
The Journalist's Toolbox
www.journaliststoolbox.com/
"The Journalist's Toolbox started in 1996 as a page linked off of one of Mike Reilley's Newswriting class syllabi at Northwestern University. Over the years, Reilley and his students kept adding links to the one-page site. Then professors from other universities shared links. Then working professionals ... You get the idea."
Finding Almost Anybody
www.nreisner.com
A wealth of handy tips and links to finding virtually anyone on the planet, past or present.
MapTech
www.maptech.com/
"The largest online mapping resource for topographic maps and charts for land, sea, and air. Browse, view, print, and email the maps for free. "
EmbassyWorld
www.embassyworld.com/maps//
Claims to offer every online map to every country in the world. You be the judge. Note: the main site (www.embassyworld.com)is a directory for every embassy and consulate.
Acronym Finder
www.acronymfinder.com/
"The web's most comprehensive database of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms. 212,000+ definitions!"
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.
www.bartleby.com/141/index.html
The grammer guru online. "It gives in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style and concentrates attention on the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated."
SearchSystems.net
www.searchsystems.net/
Sreenath Sreenivasan, Columbia University journalism professor: "A good way to find public information online is by using this service from Pacific Information Systems. With links to almost 5,000 public records databases, it's the largest free collection of public records databases on the Web."
Computer-Assisted Reporting
www.ire.org/datalibrary/databases/index.html
How about a library of online databases? Gold.
Libraryspot.com
www.libraryspot.com/
A free virtual library resource center for educators and students, librarians and their patrons, families, businesses and just about anyone exploring the Web for valuable research information.
The Quotations Page
www.quotationspage.com/
Search for quotes by keyword. This is fun for birthday cards, co-worker pick-me-ups or to track down that elusive quote. I would double-check once you've found what you want, as the accuracy varies.
Schools of Thought
Associated Press Managing Editors
www.apme.com
"APME works in partnership with AP to improve the wire service's performance. … We conduct regular wire watches to evaluate AP's performance and help select AP Member Showcase photos of the month. Our elected officers serve as national leaders in speaking out on journalism issues. APME is on the front line in setting ethical and journalistic standards for newspapers and in the battle for freedom of information and the First Amendment."
American Society of Newspaper Editors
www.asne.org/
"The American Society of Newspaper Editors is the leading organization of daily newspaper editors in the Americas. It is primarily an organization for its members to share ideas. It also carries on a variety of programs, projects and initiatives for the good of journalism through its committees."
American Copy Editor Society
www.copydesk.org
This professional organization of copy editors, "is dedicated to improving the quality of journalism and the working lives of journalists. Our main purpose is to educate our members--and others in the news business – in ways of improving the standards of copy editing and increasing the value the news industry places on our craft."
Investigative Reporters & Editors
www.reporter.org
A database of beat resources is just one of many sections to peruse.
Oregon Newspaper Publishers Assoc.
www.orenews.com
A lending library, Web resources, city and county info and award listings with art.
Washington Newspaper Publishers Assoc.
www.wnpa.com/
In addition to lists of papers, there are reporter's links, a newsroom legal guide and, wait for it, the Food Safety Forum Media Resource Guide.
FACSNET
www.facsnet.org
There's a weath of information here. Look at the section for jounalists on Sept. 11. Also click on Internet Resources and find a searchable database. One of the group's purposes is to maintain "online resources designed to help journalists find information they need and to understand the subjects upon which they report. "
Poynter Institute
www.poynter.org
"Everything you need to be a better journalist."
American Journalism Review
www.ajr.org
The magazine. For a chuckle, click on Take Two.
Editor & Publisher
www.mediainfo.com/
News about the industry
It’s the Reader
www.readersfirst.com/
This site is the resource center for Readers First, an E.W. Scripps initiative. It serves readership-builders in all departments of our newspapers. Any friend of newspapers is welcome to visit and contribute. Look into the Turning the Tide Case Studies, the seed for our own It's the Reader program.
Math Mainly
Niles Online | Statistics
www.nilesonline.com/stats
"Here, described in plain English, are some basic concepts in statistics that every writer should know." His data-finding site is also worthy.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
www.bls.gov/home.htm
More than you could ever need to know about most governmental statistics. Yikes is the word. "The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. "
Cost of Living Calculator
www.NewsEngin.com/neFreeTools.nsf/CPIcalc
"This gizmo uses the historical Consumer Price Index for urban consumers (CPI-U) to convert dollar values between different years. This allows you to compare the real buying power of historical dollar amounts, adjusted for inflation."
Percent Change Calculator
www.NewsEngin.com/neFreeTools.nsf/
PercentChange/formPercentChange
Don't let your math skills damage the story.
Convert-me.com
http://www.convert-me.com/en/
Found by Carl Earl searching for a conversion from ounces to kegs. Hmmmmm? "Interactive calculators for many measurement systems both commonly used like metric and U.S. Avoirdupois and quite exotic like Ancient Greek and Roman."
Martindales' Reference Desk | Other calculators
www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators.html
Just when you thought there wasn't a calculator to do THAT kind of math ....
Search engines
www.google.com
The master of all search engines, in my book, an added bonus is "Google takes a snapshot of each page examined as it crawls the web and caches these as a back-up in case the original page is unavailable. If you click on the 'Cached' link, you will see the web page as it looked when we indexed it."
www.dogpile.com
"With Dogpile metasearch, you have access to not just one search engine, but many of the Web's most popular search tools, including: Web search: Ah-ha, AltaVista, Direct Hit, Dogpile Web Catalog, ePilot, FindWhat, GoTo.com, Kanoodle, LookSmart, Open Directory, RealNames, SearchHippo, Sprinks by About, ValleyAlley and Yahoo!" Owned by Infospace.
www.metacrawler.com
"MetaCrawler queries many of the Web's top search engines simultaneously … ranking them by relevance. MetaCrawler draws upon the databases of a large number of the Web's best search engines. MetaCrawler simultaneously sends queries to AltaVista, DirectHit Excite, FindWhat, GoTo, and LookSmart, among others." Owned by Infospace, too.
www.rocketnews.com
This engine finds current news from all around the Internet. It automatically searches major online national and city newspapers, newswires, magazines, trade publications, and press releases.
www.altavista.com
"AltaVista checks the words you enter against a massive (half-million entry) phrase dictionary to determine which words go together naturally, and automatically treats them as phrases."
www.lycos.com
Lycos.com "offers Internet users a fast, easy and efficient way to make sense of the Internet and manage its vast resources. It combines leading Web search and navigation resources, deep content in vertical areas, communications and personalization tools, and a complete shopping center."
Directories
www.yahoo.com
Duff Wilson says: Yahoo is a directory compiled by professional indexers. It will almost always find the official site on the subject you want, and it generously takes you to most the other top search engines for additional rounds of searching without having to type in the key words over and over.
Who writes/owns this stuff?
www.whois.net
Find out who owns and operates any domain name on the Internet by typing in the URL. Also gives you contact information.
Get the government
www.firstgov.com
The U.S. government's one-stop shopping spot.
www.govspot.com
Loads of links to government agencies and sites about what's going on politically.
www.stateline.org
Stateline.org was founded in order to help journalists, policy makers and engaged citizens become better informed about innovative public policies. Run by the Pew Center on the States,
Census Bureau
www.census.gov
Try the American FactFinder.
The fun stuff
www.theonion.com
www.dumblaws.com
www.howstuffworks.com
http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html
Internet movie database
us.imdb.com/search
Legal stuff
American Bar Association
www.abanet.org/
Bureau of Justice Statistics
www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
Federal Bureau of Investigation
www.fbi.gov
FindLaw
www.findlaw.com
Legal Information Institute
www.law.cornell.edu/states/
National Center for State Courts
www.ncsconline.org
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics
www.albany.edu/sourcebook/
Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion
www-camlaw.rutgers.edu/publications/law-religion/
A Web "Journal dedicated to the interaction of church and state on a global scale. …its goal is to explore how law impacts different religions, and reciprocally, how various religions impact the law."
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
www.uspto.gov/
Search patents and trademarks as well as cruise the Electronic Freedom of Information Act area related to such.
Genealogy
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
www.familysearch.org/
East Oregonian Publishing Co
Blue Mountain Eagle
www.bluemountaineagle.com
Oregon's oldest weekly newspaper, serving Grant County since 1868.
Capital Press
www.capitalpress.com
Capital Press is an independent weekly farm and ranch newspaper that serves California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and other western states.
Chinook Observer
www.chinookobserver.com
The weekly news source for Washington's Long Beach Peninsula since 1900.
The Daily Astorian
www.dailyastorian.com
The daily newspaper for Oregon's northwest corner and Washington's Long Beach Peninsula.
East Oregonian
www.eastoregonian.com
Seven-day newspaper serving Morrow, Gilliam and Umatilla counties since 1875.
Wallowa County Chieftain
www.wallowacountychieftain.com
Weekly newspaper serving Wallowa County in northeast Oregon since 1884.
Farm Seller
www.farmseller.com
Capital Press' exclusive real estate listing service for agricultural lands
East Oregon Real Estate & Home Builders Guide
www.eastoregonrealestate.com/
Real estate listing service at the East Oregonian.
Lewis and Clark Northwest
www.lewisandclarknw.com
Company's Web site promoting its Lewis and Clark guide book
Coast Weekend
www.coastweekend.com
The Daily Astorian's arts and entertainment guide
Discovery Coast
www.discoverycoast.com
Chinook Observer's visitors' guide online
wallowa.com
www.wallowa.com
The Wallowa County Chieftain's visitor guide and links to area businesses
Seaside-Sun.com
www.seaside-sun.com
Community journalism site for Seaside, Oregon. Articles and photos and blogs submitted b
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