Information Gathering for Journalists

ProPublica -- "Journalism in the Public Interest"

2009-10-12T11:20:00.004-04:00

This might be a good investigative journalism website to know about:

ProPublica is an independent non-profit newsroom focusing on investigative journalism concerning public interest topics. ProPublica is led by distinguished former editors from publications such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

Licensed under Creative Commons, ProPublica allows republishing of articles and graphics for free, as long as credit is given with a link to ProPublica and content is not edited or sold.

Article: What the web knows about you

2009-10-05T09:02:00.003-04:00

Here is the link to the web article from Computerworld that was just pointed out by one of the J233 instructors. The author of this article also published a similar article in Computerworld magazine, "What Google knows about you."

New Research Guide for JOUR 233

2009-09-23T13:20:00.006-04:00

The library has just subscribed to LibGuides, new software for creating library research guides. I tried my hand at creating one for J233, so check it out here. I've also linked it to the course in Bb (see the Announcement section as to where the LibGuide is on Bb).

Keep in mind that this guide serves all sections of JOUR233, so there may be a page in the guide that addresses something you are not doing for your particular section, such as creating a blog or backgrounding an individual person. However, it may be something you'd like to know more about anyway so go ahead and use the info!

Whenever possible I've tried to link other things into the J233 LibGuide such as this blog, relevant CommWiki articles and so forth.

If there is anything I can add, delete or otherwise improve the LibGuide, please let me know!

Primary Sources

2009-09-14T14:54:00.004-04:00

Primary sources are first-person accounts of events such as diaries, letters, written manuscripts, video or audio recordings, photographs, etc. that were either created at the time of the event or soon thereafter. Primary sources could also be in the form of material created long after an event in the form of memoirs or oral histories.

To further understand what primary sources are with examples, see a description of primary sources with examples from the CommWiki.

Some primary source directories:

Other Alden Library primary source holdings are located in the Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections

Google Reader in Plain English

2009-07-07T10:33:00.012-04:00

If you're new to using the Google Reader RSS feed reader, you might find this video from Common Craft useful. Check out their YouTube channel for more videos. These are great for when you encounter a new technology (like Twitter) and need to know the basics right away.

Some More Blogs

2009-07-05T15:53:00.001-04:00

Now that you've had a chance to explore blogs for your assignment, here are a few more media/journalism/communication blogs that would be useful additions to your favorite RSS reader.

Advertising Age: Bills itself as "your online source for marketing and media news" (from footer)
Broadcasting & Cable: B&C is a weekly trade publication covering all aspects of the television industry. Its website provides breaking news and analysis.
Columbia Journalism Review: The CJR aims to "stimulate excellence in journalism in the service of a free society," and its website "delivers real-time criticism and reporting."
Online Journalism Blog: Covers online journalism and reporting in all its forms.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press: The website for an "independent, non-partisan public opinion research organization that studies attitudes toward politics, the press and public policy issues." Data and analysis from their monthly surveys are available to the public for free (About).
Pew Internet & American Life Project: As project of the Pew Research Center, the Pew Internet & American Life Project provides "reports exploring the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life" (About Us)
Romenesko: Provides daily news and links on the media industry and journalism (About). Hosted on the Poynter website, an excellent source of news and training for journalists.

This is definitely not an exhaustive list, but will get you started if you're new to blogs about media/communication/journalism. Do you have any other favorites?

Citation Styles

2009-06-30T10:11:00.006-04:00

If your instructor requires a specific citation style for your final assignment, you'll need to choose a single citation style and stick to it. Here are some resources to help you make those citations perfect.

APA Style:

You can find several copies of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association at the Learning Commons Reference Desk (2nd floor). You can also find simplified versions of the APA guides, such as the Concise Rules of APA Style.
The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides a clear overview of the style requirements and citation rules for the APA style.
If you need to cite a type resource that is not covered in the APA manual, check out the APA Style Guide to Electronic References (OU only).

MLA Style

There several copies of the most recent edition (2009) of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers at the Learning Commons Reference Desk.
The OWL site has a good overview of the MLA style, as a concise overview of the changes to the MLA style in the 2009 edition.

Chicago Style

Find a copy of the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style at the Learning Commons Reference Desk.
The Ohio State Library website has a good overview of the citation style for the major types of resources as does the Writing Center website of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Citation Tools: The following are some tools to help you create your citations. While they are useful, do remember that ultimately you're responsible for providing complete and correct citations in your papers and projects. Always check citations made from these resources before you turn in your assignment.

All OU students have access to RefWorks, which lets you create a personal database of citations and provides tools to help create your citations. There is definitely a bit of a learning curve here, but once you know how to use this tool, it can save you a lot of time. See this page on using Ref Works for more info.
The Citation Builder from the North Carolina State University Libraries will generate citations in the major styles for most of the basic types of resources.
Zotero is a relatively new tool that works with the Firefox browser to help you organize and cite your research materials. See the Zotero Support page for more information on this open source tool.

"Love - and fear - the Internet"

2009-06-29T09:56:00.006-04:00

From a post this morning on the Two-Way (the NPR News Blog) - via their Twitter Feed, @nprnews.

YouTube has a new Reporter's Center, which includes videos about reporting for reporters. I'm particularly found of this video about fact checking from PolitiFact's editor Bill Adair, but you'll find lots of other great videos here on topics ranging from Conducting a Good Interview by Katie Couric and Telling a Good Story by NPR's Scott Simon.

Save Articles in Library Databases

2009-06-25T16:35:00.007-04:00

When you are searching an article database, you may want to save the article to read later or to keep track of it once it comes time to write your paper or assigment. However, just grabbing the link at the top of the page often wont work. Luckily, most of the article databases offer easy tools to help you keep track of the articles you've found. See this video from the OU Libraries VidHelp site for some tips on saving articles that you have found in an article database.

ETA: The width of this blog makes it a little difficult to embed the video - you can see wider version at the original Vid Help video.

About this Blog

2009-06-18T18:18:00.010-04:00

This blog is intended to serve the students taking Information Gathering (JOUR233) who will be gathering information about people, companies and topics. Alden Librarians Jessica Hagman and Diana Nichols will post about resources and research tips throughout the course that will help students to become expert info gatherers!

Here's a sampling of the kinds of things blog posts will address:

experts to interview
non-profit associations (can be organizations or think tanks)
company & business info
government information
statistics -- where to get 'em, how to read 'em
finding quality websites
blog searching
keeping up with info via RSS feeds
finding multimedia resources
finding books
newspaper and magazine articles
trade magazine and scholarly articles
reference sources, both electronic and print

Stay tuned -- and don't forget that you can subscribe to this blog via RSS feed !

How to create a Blog using Blogger

2009-06-18T16:24:00.003-04:00

Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three easy steps.

NOTE: If you already have a Google or Gmail account, skip Step 1 -- just log in and go to Blogger.

1. Create a Google account (view screenshot)
2. Create and name your blog (view screenshot)
3. Select your template. (view screenshot)

Once you’ve created your blog here are three important things to know:

To add posts: The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com/ Be sure to remember your login and password.
Naming your blog: You do not have to use your personal name as part of your blog's title or URL address, but you will need to have your name elsewhere on your blog, as well as the blog's topic (the title of your blog).
To view your blog: Your blog address is http://xxxx.blogspot.com, with xxxx being the unique identifier you entered in Step 2. Be sure to remember your blog address.

If you run into problems or would like more information about blogs and using Blogger take a look at Blogger’s Quick Tutorial, Help Center and Video Tutorials.

How to use RSS feeds

2009-06-17T16:34:00.005-04:00

RSS is an easy way to keep up with new online content of almost any kind -- new blog posts, website updates, or even new articles added to library datbases. With a Feed Reader you can easily read and organize the RSS feeds you subscribe to.

Here's the basic how-to. First you need a feed reader. Set up a free Bloglines account. Or try Google Reader (I use both). Then go to your favorite blogs or websites, and whenever you see an orange RSS icon just click it and you're good to go! What's great about the above two feed readers is that you can access them from any computer. Hmmm, I bet from iPhones too!

See the YouTube videos, RSS in Plain English and Google Reader in Plain English, by commoncraft
More about using RSS feeds for library research in a later post ...

Using RSS for Library Research

2009-06-16T11:33:00.002-04:00

Library databases are getting into the RSS game too. For instance, you can set up a search in a database, and new articles that fit that search will go to your RSS feed. Or you can set up an RSS feed to a particular publication in a library database, and when new articles appear they will show up in your RSS feed reader.

The following databases are set up with RSS links -- see instructions here for setting up feeds:

EBSCOhost databases (Academic Search Complete, Communication & Mass Media Complete, Business Source Complete & more)
Proquest databases (WSJ Online, Proquest Newspapers, Alt-Press Watch, Ethnic Newswatch & more)
CSA databases (Communication Abstracts, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Electronics and Communications Abstracts, Social Services Abstracts & more)

See the OU Libraries RSS feed information page

Evaluating Sources

2009-06-15T14:41:00.004-04:00

How do you know that the information you have found on a web page or in print is good enough to cite for research or in a bibliography?

This CommWiki page lists some guides that will help you evaluate various kinds of sources from print books & articles as well as websites & other online sources

Evaluate everything before using, even things such as

scholarly works found on the Internet via Google Scholar
books & articles found via the library
info found on websites, no matter how "authoritative" it seems

Check out this tutorial about evaluation at Research 101, from the University of Washington Libraries.

Citing Sources

2009-06-14T15:08:00.007-04:00

Citing sources properly in a list of resources or bibliography is very important. Not only do you want to give the creators of the source their due credit, you want anyone who reads your work to be able to find that source themselves (including your course instructor!)

Whether you use APA, MLA, Chicago or no specific citation style, a basic, consistent format is a key component of all resource lists.

The Alden Library staff have experience helping students with citations, so don't hesitate to use the online Ask A Librarian service if you have a question. Here are two video tutorials produced by Ohio University Librarians:

Basics of Citation Tools
Basics of Citations and Style Guides

Check out this guide from the CommWiki on Citing Sources that lists several online and print resources for citation styles.