THE REPORTER'S TOOLBOX, digital edition
Sites, tidbits, examples and information that can help reporters who are trying to cover their beats and write great stories:
DATA VISUALIZATION
Many eyes, a good site for links to programs that can turn data into visuals:
UMapper, a place to create maps:
BatchGeo, a site that in one click that turn information from a spreadsheet into a map (such as locations of McDonalds throughout a city or region):
VuVox, a site that can create interactive panoramas and galleries for photos:
TimeToast, a site that creates timelines of all sizes and kinds:
Dippity, another timeline-creation site that specializes in graphics that can be posted to the Web:
Capzles, a web site for creating timelines:
Caspio, a site for creating online databases:
SOCIAL MEDIA
A very simple how-to on what to do one you join Twitter:
A great how-to with links on how to use Hoot Suite’s Twitter analytics:
How to use Facebook analytics:
A whole lot of links to ways you can use Twitter in the classroom and how students can use it to help their work:
How journalists are using sites to gauge Twitter’s effectiveness tweet by tweet:
The Economist is using Twitter to stage realtime debates.
Twitter is highly searchable. You can find out what topics are most discussed, find sources who are discussing a certain topic – the uses are as endless as your imagination. Here is the site on Twitter that is a tutorial on how to best use the search function:
Klout.com calculates how “influential” a Twitter author is compared to similar authors. Plug in Syracuse University and you’ll see how this works.
This site searches Twitter very effectively for tweets using key words:
This site is outstanding, because it not only measures the volume of tweets on particular topic, but also measures whether the tweets are positive or negative and a ton of other metrics:
It’s dumbed down, but here is the history of social networking in a graphic:
If you are looking for journalism news and links to how-to sites for reporters, here is a list of hashtags used on Twitter that can streamline your searches:
Here are eight sites to help you get the most out of your tweets – a thesaurus that finds shorter words, a translator of Twitter jargon, even a program that helps you squeeze long sentences into short ones (this sounds like a reporter’s dream and a helluva short cut):
A checklist on accuracy for journalists working in social media:
Social media users actually are pretty social:
How big is the Internet? THIS big! Lots of statistics on the Web and social media.
Visits to Twitter.com declining:
Some how-tos about using social media to brand your company; this also has some good links at the end of the story about how to use social media metrics.
Homepage of Tweetbeat, which follows popular topics and charts activity on Twitter involving that topic.
Certain pages on Facebook, such as U.S. Politics on Facebook, carry coverage of events. This page charts Facebook usage during the State of the Union Address. You can search Facebook in the search field for hot topics and see such pages.
DEEP THOUGHTS
Another “future of journalism” piece, this one about little piggies and the Geico gekko.
How journalists used Twitter in the wake of the Arizona congresswoman’s shooting. It’s an example of the innovative ways that journalists are using technology to monitor the i-world and join the conversation.
OUTRAGEOUSLY COOL THINGS
Google will translate languages for you – and chat, too.
JUST FOR JOURNALISTS
Simple explanation of statististics for writers:
Professor Charlotte Grimes has lots of advice about reporting, story structure and tips to help all reporters:
STORYTELLING
How journalists are using new media to tell the story of the Egyptian revolution:
The New York Times Review of Books interviews subway passengers who are reading books on the train what they think of them, and present it as a cartoon with talk bubbles:
GeoMaps for journalists:
http://www.directionsmag.com/podcasts/how-openheatmap-can-help-journalists/138643
How to build narratives using multimedia and innovative storytelling:
http://transom.org/?p=13808
You can use Google.docs, which is similar to PowerPoint, to make low-tech animations similar to the old-time flash cards. You produce lots of pages, order then and you simulate the flip books of another era. Except these are digital and can be share with anyone who can view a web site or receive e-mail.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/05/google-docs/
The Washington Post recently constructed a story told entirely from a series of Facebook status updates. The concept is an old one, similar to telling a story via a series of diary entries. But this is the digital age version:
This was a viral digital sensation among journalists and those who love them for a few weeks. There are now versions of “so, you want to be a television reporter,” and so one. It’s the savage truth about journalism in a short and oddly Sim-robotic video:
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8045747/
A very funny speedie version of all the information from the WikiLeaks in video format quick-quick:
This is a pretty dated and newspaper centric list of 25 ways to find good stories, but the it captures the spirit of shoe leather, deputizing people in the know and keen reportorial observation:
Very cool list of links to programs that help you create innovative maps from data:
Non-fiction and fiction, plots, characters, setting, motives and more:
INFORMATION AND SITES TO HELP YOU FIND IT
A Harvard project has produced a Journalist’s Resource web site:
SU’s 2010 economic impact report:
The Maxwell School has a course called Community Benchmarks, and its students do all sorts of surveys about the local community. It is a treasure trove of data about the campus and Syracuse:
Create maps of reported crimes in Onondaga County:
Salary information on every state and municipal employee in New York, including school districts:
Some information about SU’s budget and other spending from Middle States accreditation document the is named 2008 SU SelfStudy pdf found in NEW305 file.
Information about SU’s endowment:
SU Judicial System Reports from 2000-2009 can be found on this site:
This post the UK’s Guardian has tips about how to use Excel spreadsheets and databases, but it also has some amazing links to data sites of all kinds.
How find out information about who, what, where and how many when it comes to Websites and the people behind them:
Bird Library is one of SU stealth genius ways to find information. Here is one aspect of an amazing resource, the secrets of Bird Library’s sixth floor:
http://www.thenewshouse.com/story/beyond-stacks-bird-librarys-special-collections
Here are 10 facts about e-mail. This also links to 10 facts about Google, Facebook and so on.
Here is a rich source of statistics on many subjects:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/lehman/guides/stats/ny.html#NYS
Here is where to find state and regional labor statistics:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/lehman/guides/stats/ny.html#NYS
Here is where to find state and regional labor statistics:
Anyone covering a campus beat to can find information about how much SU faculty members are paid:
http://su-aaup.org/salary.htm
http://su-aaup.org/salary.htm
U.S. Census data from the 2000 census on communities (any ZIP Code):
Go to http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en
Fast access to information
Get a fact sheet for your community
Put in zip code and Click GO
That will give you the 1999 figure which is from the 2000 census and the most recent available.
The instructions for getting the 1990 census data for zip codes is available here:
http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/zipstats.html
Fast access to information
Get a fact sheet for your community
Put in zip code and Click GO
That will give you the 1999 figure which is from the 2000 census and the most recent available.
The instructions for getting the 1990 census data for zip codes is available here:
http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/zipstats.html
Amazing compilation of 2010 information about the Internet and usage, including links to source material and authoritative web sites:
A little bit of everything from Mashable:
