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Gathering Information OnlineMarie K. ShanahanFall 2012University of Connecticut

+Journalism is…

Storytelling With Facts

Gathering Filtering Distributing

*Conversing

+What to gather online:

Story ideas

Sources for stories

Primary research, other information

Diverse points of view, perspectives

+Search Using Keywords Names

Places

Proper nouns

Topics

Try different word combinations/abbreviations: For example, CT or Connecticut or Conn.

Synonyms

Word order can make a difference

+ Start with Google (and check other search engines, too)

- Ask, Yippy, Yahoo, Bing, Twingine, Dogpile, DuckDuckGo

+Advanced Searching http://www.google.com/advanced_search

Don’t forget the “More” tab

+Google Advanced Search Tips

Precede with site: to only search the pages of one site

Use quotes for “exact phrase”

Limit results to a particular type of file: .pdf, .doc. .xls

Limit results to a particular type of domain: .gov, .edu or .org

When searching images, limit by color

+RSS Feeds

Real Simple Syndication

www.commoncraft.com/video/rss

www.google.com/reader/

+YouTube: Video Search

Youtube.com = second most searched website after Google

“Filter” your search results

Use keywords: Topics, Locations, Names

Scour YouTube user profiles

Can also search Vimeo, Viddler, Daily Motion

+Facebook Use social media for surveillance,

sourcing, crowdsourcing.

www.facebook.com/search

People

Pages

Groups

Posts by Everyone

Also, try a Facebook specific Google search:

Site:Facebook.com XkeywordX

+Twitter

Twitter.com/search

Go to advanced search

Keywords

Try designating a location

+LinkedIn: People Search

http://www.linkedin.com/search

Expertise in a particular field

Employees of a particular company

+Flickr: Photo Search

http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/

Search for topics, locations, people

Photopin.com

+Social Bookmarking

Take your bookmarks with you.

Google Bookmarks

Delicious.com

+Expert Source Services

+Backgrounding People Don't just search for somebody by their full name

Use nicknames avatar name, email address