Here are a range of tools that will – hopefully – help you carry out your journalism tasks more effectively

1. Tools and
resources every
journalist
should
experiment
with
Journalism - Information Gathering
Resources

2. Tools have always come from the need to carry
out a specific task more effectively. It's one of the
main differences between human beings and the
rest of the animal kingdom. We may still be slaves
to the same old evolutionary urges but we sure
know how to eat noodles in style.
In journalism, an abstract tool for uncovering the
most interesting and insightful information about
society, we can generally boil the workflow down
to four stages: finding, reporting, producing and
distributing stories.
So with that in mind, here are a range of tools
which will – hopefully – help you carry out your
journalism tasks more effectively

3. Advanced Google Search
• A somewhat simplistic start to the list, maybe, but Google has many tricks that
every self-respecting journalist should be taking advantage of.
While it is very good for a spot of online shopping, journalists need to learn a few
tweaks and tips to improve their searching with the use of search operators.
• The site search function (e.g. "site:journalism.co.uk tools") is probably the
most powerful here, especially when combined with other search operators
like filetype: or inurl: to find information that might be locked deep in the rabbit's
nest of a government website.
Check out 25 Killer Combos for Google's Site: Operator (6 with "inurl") – Moz for
some detailed examples and think how they could apply to your work, and check
also some Google search operators from GoogleGuide.com

4. If This Then That
• If This Then That - or if - is a fantastic tool and one all
journalists should try. It allows you to connect different
platforms and accounts.
For example, you can create a 'recipe' which sends you a
text when your editor emails you, you can create one to
download a photo to Dropbox when you are tagged in a
picture on Facebook, or you can use Siri to add text to
reminders in Evernote. There is a list of ifttt recipes for
journalists here.
• ‘If this then that’: ten recipes for journalists | Editors Blog |
Journalism.co.uk
• It was written some time ago but is still useful.
Here are a couple of ideas which could work for
newsgathering:
If an Instagram picture is tagged with a specific hashtag,
send me an email.
Another example is an existing recipe someone else has
shared. It sends a text when a large earthquake hits
California by connecting the RSS feed of an earthquake
monitoring site to a chosen SMS service. Here's a recipe
for UK earthquake alerts.
•You can also connect the feed to autopost on
Facebook or Twitter
Receive notifications of specific events.

5. Storyful Multisearch
• As the first social newswire, Storyful has the
inside track on finding stories around the
world through social media, largely by
building its own software similar to
Tweetdeck but with automated alerts for
keywords.
• There's a lot more involved in the full, paid-
for service used by news organisations
worldwide, but the Multisearch browser
extension is a quick way to search for
keywords across a handful of social
networks.

6. Echosec
• Echosec is one of a whole range of sites and services that
have sprung up in recent years to help people search for
geolocated posts on social media.
• In short, the free service lets you draw a shape around a
certain area on a map and the software will return all the
tweets posted to that location within a specified time period.
Add the 'premium' service and Echosec opens up other
social networks like YouTube, Sina Weibo and more.
GramFeed is a good alternative option for freely searching
Instagram, while the mobile app Banjo relaunched recently
with a slicker interface, although its new focus on events
may limit its relevance for quickly finding social media posts
around you.
Finally, if you have the budget, services like Geofeedia are
used by news organizations all over the world for a really
powerful geolocated search.

7. TinEye
• Unfortunately for reporters, one of the internet's favorite
pastimes is making up rumors and faking photos.
• Are you 100 percent sure that image posted on Twitter
is really of the flooding in Texas? Or the picture on
Facebook shows people suffering in the heatwaves in
India?
Whole books have been written on various verification
tools and techniques, but the first port of call should
always be TinEye, which scours the web for the first
time an image was used online.
Check out Google's reverse image search as well, just
as a back up, as some recent anecdotal grumblings
allege TinEye isn't always as reliable as it once was

8. DataPortals.org and Google Public
Data
• The vast amount of public and private data available
in the 21st century is inescapable, and can hold the
key to an immeasurable number of news stories and
sources.
DataPortals is essentially a global database of
databases, with more than 400 sources of data from
every corner of the earth.
• However, not every country has strong open data
laws, so don't expect full access everywhere.
Google Public Data is also worth exploring as a
quick way to access specific datasets from large
global institutions as well.

9. Mention
• The first is a powerful tool called Mention. Unlike Google Alerts, this tool finds mentions of
your keywords or phrases on social platforms, such as Facebook, plus it scans blogs,
forums, videos and images.
You can download a desktop version (Mac, PC or Linux), or choose to use one of the web
or mobile apps. You then set up your keywords or phrases and Mention will run in the
background.
You can click on the alerts in the app and see the source. If you prefer, you can take an
RSS feed of the search term.
• This app offers a great user experience and will be useful to journalists covering all beats.
If you are researching a niche topic or tracking a business, place or person, it is
particularly valuable.
There is a free 30-day trial and payment plans start at $6.99.
• Monitoring and Social Media Management | Manage your Brand Online (mention.com)

10. TalkWalker
• If you like the idea of a Google Alerts
alternative go for TalkWalker.
TalkWalker offers a paid-for platform for
monitoring social media but has a free email
alerts option.
• Google Alerts alternative. The best and free
alerts service with Twitter results - Talkwalker

11. ChangeDetection
• This free and very simple service sends you an email every
time a change is made to a specified web page.
You add a URL and the tool will then send email alerts to notify
you when text is added or removed from a particular page.
• Visualping: #1 Website change detection, monitoring and alerts

12. Newsle
Discover when new data is release
By connecting your LinkedIn account, Facebook account and
Gmail or other email to Newsle, you find out when one of your
contacts gets a new job, an award, or makes the news.
You can see when your contacts are quoted or included in an
article and you can also track 'friends of friends'.

13. NewsWhip
• NewsWhip is a tool that we have written about before. It allows
you to monitor and filter news shared across social networks in
one platform. You can find out what is trending in different parts
of the world, or in a particular niche.
A new feature called Spike Alerts launched, which sends an
email alert of the news stories in any niche which are getting the
most traction on social media.
Check this link: Social Media Analytics | NewsWhip

14. Advanced Twitter search
• As with Google, every journalist should have some
basic understanding of the merits of Twitter for
finding tips and stories, but there are some power
tools out there that can do the hard work for you.
Chief among them? Tweetdeck.
Tweetdeck's main strength comes in being able to
watch a large number of customised Twitter feeds,
based on lists or searches. You can create your
own lists of Twitter accounts around specific beats
if you so wish, or follow those created by others
and have them displayed together side-by-side to
track the Twitter chat.
Twitter has a Google-style list of search operators
as well, which can be combined to find niche
corners of the 6,000 Tweets per second that could
be the start of your next story.
• Note: Twitter search operators, from Twitter.com

15. To search anything on Facebook, all you need to do is
type the keyword (one word or a group of words) in the
search bar and select what are you looking for from the
drop-down list. Hit Look up. However, before doing all this,
do not forget to login to your Facebook account first using
the same browser you are using for our website.
Facebook advanced
research
For example, if you are looking a friend, type then name in
the search bar and select people from the drop-down
menu. And, click on Look up. Once you do that, the results
will start populating on the screen. Similarly, you can
search for groups, pages, videos, photos, events, apps
etc.
Whatever you want to search for, just type the keyword for
it using this Facebook stalker. Select the right place to
look for the keywords (people, posts, groups etc) and we
will get you the closest result at the top of the list.

16. YouTube Like a Pro Using Advanced
Search Operators
• Using YouTube's Filter Options
• Much of the time, you can use YouTube's built-in filters to help
narrow your search results.
• To access them, first run a search on YouTube. Next, click
the Filter button and you'll see several filter options. You can choose
just one of them or combine several for deeper searches.
• Note that some combinations won't work, however. For example, if
you filter by upload date, you can't also filter by channels.

17. Social Media Tools for
journalists

19. • Social Media Resources
• Twitter - communicate in 140 characters or less
• Pinterest - social bookmarking/pinning site
• Reddit - post and vote on top posted stories
• Stumbleupon - recommends sites based on interests
• Buzzfeed - shared stories based on interest topics
• Delicious - social bookmarking site
• Friendfeed - “..discover and discuss the interesting stuff
your friends find on the web.”
• Technorati - collects, highlights, and distributes online
global conversation
• Digg - aggregates stories on the Internet
• FARK - online news aggregator and social media site
• Storify - helps its users tell stories by curating social
media
• Talkwheel - a conversation wheel that lets you see where
most people are commenting and a sidebar of topics good
for a quick scan of the dialogue
•SocialBro - time-saving tool for Twitter aficionados
•Commun.it - breaks down relationships with Twitter followers into
categories such as influencers, supporters and engaged members
•Storyful - get the most popular social media stories of the day when
you’re on the go
•Tumblr - A feature rich and free blog hosting platform offering
professional and fully customizable templates, bookmarks, photos,
mobile apps, and social network
•Google Trends - compare the world’s interest in your favorite topics
•Google Reader - checks your favorite news sites and blogs for
new content
•Google Docs - allows you to create and share work online
•Google + Hangouts - video chat with multiple people at one time
•Spundge - collaboratively curate the web and create relevant,
influential content
•Tout - enables the creation of 15 second videos on your phone

20. • Blogging Tools
• Cover it live - live blogging tool
• Wordpress - free website and blog tool
• Blogs
• KISSmetrics - 40 Advanced and Alternative Search Engines
• Poynter Digital Tools Catalog
• Online Journalism Review - (OJR) from the Knight Digital Media
Center
• Visualize.tumblr.com - a blog about visualization

21. • Aggregated Data
• Google Data Set Search
• Quandl
• Website Data and Statistics
• CrunchBase offers insight into your favorite online brands and
companies. Listings will tell you people who are associated with a
company, contact information, related videos, screenshots, and more.
• Quantcast allows you to search for website profiles based on topic or
specific domains
• BuiltWith allows you to search for domains and see the technology
they use, including analytics, content management systems, coding,
and widgets.

22. • Data Visualization Tools
• Try These Data Visualization Tools:
• Computer World's 30+Free Tools for Data Visualization and Analysis
• Google Chart Tools
• Google Maps API
• Infogr.am
• Chartio
• Datawrapper
• Modest Maps
• Polymaps
• OpenLayers
• Kartograph

23. • Image and Audio Editing Tools
• Try These Image and Auditing Tools :
• Instagram
• Audacity
• YouTube
• Livestream
• Image Editors:
• Photoshop express
• Fotoflexer

24. • Survey, Wiki, QR Code, URL Shorteners...
• Survey Resources
• Qualtrics (MU's Portal - sign in with your Paw Print)
• PollDaddy
• Survey Monkey
• Zoomerang
• Wiki stuff
• Mediawiki
• DoKuWiki
• PmWiki
• WikkaWiki
• TWiki
• Xwiki
• Assorted Digital Tools
• Wordle
• Alphabetizer
• Online dictionary/thesaurus/encyclopedia