Links and Tips for Journalists

Search Engines: a "search engine" is a piece of software that helps you find just about anything on the internet -- like the index in the back of a reference book, only much more powerful; There's reckoned to be hundreds of search engines, many of them very specialised. As a journalist you don't need to know how to use more than a few of them, but you do need to be familiar with more than one -- none claims to index every website, so a failed search on one may work on another.; Google now my first choice -- and the top choice of many others. Beautifully simple front page conceals very clever and powerful searching, with no need to worry about "" marks, + signs, etc; AltaVista my second choice. Use it when looking for pages on a particular keyword or mixture of keywords; Yahoo! the classic search engine. Use it when you're looking for a particular kind of site, for example a radio station in a particular country; Ask Jeeves brilliant idea that allows you to ask a "natural language" question and then automatically checks a whole lot of search engines for you. Excellent, and other search engines are starting to include this as an option; SearchUK similar to Alta Vista but only searches UK-based sites; Deja is the first choice for finding "newsgroups", which are useful for finding discussion about current issues; Dogpile daft name for a rather useful search engine -- worth a try. It integrates several other search engines into one search, AND is also a Web catalogue.; InfoJump searches online magazines and newspapers only: "over 5 million articles from 4000 publications"; Official Search excellent alternative if you know you're only interested in "official" web-sites -- companies, professional bodies, etc -- as it ignores home pages and the like
Telephone Directories: BT PhoneNetUK is the same directory that those Directory Enquiry people use. The difference is you're in control, it's free, and you can use a lot more lateral thinking! Wonderful resource.; International Phone Directorieseven more astonishing -- this page gives links to complete national phone directories on the internet! Dozens of countries in all parts of the World, many of which offer English versions as well. Again this gives you the chance to find numbers that international directory enquiries can't find, and to try lucky dip type searches when you're not sure who you're after. Many countries also have "Yellow Pages" and email directories.
Journalism Directories & Organisations: Quite a few websites offer comprehensive guides to sites of particular use to journalists. Some of the best are:; Pen-pusher claims to be "the Europe's leading web resource for journalists" and it's certainly very good. I particularly like the "find an expert/source" feature; Fleet Street Online excellent listing of world-wide newspapers, magazines, etc; Media UK Internet Directory an excellent site listing radio, tv, newspaper and magaxines for the UK; JournalismNet a remarkable site, set up by a Canadian investigative journalist, with a separate section for the UK; Media Resources on the Net this is the offering from the main Media Trade Unions, looking a little tired but due for an upgrade; The Journalist's Resource Site a US site from "WTVM", including a variety of journalist news-groups; Newsworld organises media events, particularly annual "Newsworld" conference. Good, and the "Hot Links" page is useful; The Copyright Website; The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA); Society of Authors; United Kingdom Writers' Site; Writers' Guild of Great Britain - Home; Fleet Street Forum for UK Media; ALCS The Authors' Licencing and Collecting Society; ByLine The Global Journalism Bank re-sell your published articles to magazines and newspapers around the world!; TotalNEWS all the News, on the Net, all the Time this is a search engine and directory of news sites.
News Providers: are sites giving a news service, often near-live. Not as comprehensive as agency wires, but still useful. Some of the best are well-known agencies, like the Press Association; COI this is the Central Office of Information, the official UK govt press body. Many government press officers will now say "it's on our website" if you ask for a press release, so check here before phoning them. Look through the back-list of press releases if you want to see how many times a particular Minister has repeated the same announcement, and repeatedly trumpeted the same spending decision!; Open Government Information Service you have to be rather suspicious of the title, but actually it's excellent with links to many hundreds of govt depts, agencies, local councils etc.; Hansard yes up to date online Hansard for the Commons on the Lords, and it's kept very up to date.; ...and many more ..; Drudge Report the famous/infamous Matt Drudge. Fascinating, but approach with care.; Newshub a "summary of todays newest news, updated every 15 minutes, every day"; The Smoking Gun promises lots of confidential documents revealed under US Freedom of Information Act etc; NewsNow Quality news headlines updated every five minutes, every day
more Official Sites: UK; RUC Home Page is a fine example of a museum site; The Office Of Data Protection -- are you registered?; Customs & Excise sort out VAT problems!; Inland Revenue -- sort out tax problems; Environment Agency; Britain in the USA is the site of the press office of the British Embassy in the USA; House of Commons Library Research Papers; The European Commission; Royal Mail useful site for up to date info on postal services, including Royal Mail Tracking where you can track those Special Delivery packets all the way to delivery; America; FBI yup, the Federal Burean of Investigation; National Security Agency; Political Information (.com) -- A Search Engine for Politics and Policy; International; Tibetan Government in Exile's Official Web Site; United Nations Home Page; Multilateral Agreement on Investment -- read about the little-publicised US efforts to impose global investment domination on countries too weak to resist
Arts: The British Library; The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia astonishing site that allows you to "walk" through the museum and see the exhibits. Not unique but included as an example of what can be done.; Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate for intellectuals! Stylish site, reminiscent of old bookshops.; Bibliomania, The Network Library
Booksellers: these can be useful for more than just buying rare or discount books. Want to find background information on an author? Go to one of these sites, enter the author's name and see what comes up. Often there will be some biographical information, like where they work, where they live, etc. All very useful.; Amazon.co.uk; The Book Pl@ce; The Internet Bookshop Europe's Largest Online Bookshop; BarnesandNoble.com-The World's Largest Bookseller Online; Books OnLine
Business: Companies House source of details on limited companies, debarred directors etc; Company Sleuth Homepage a US-based site; Biz-ed Home Page a Bristol University site with facts for students, teachers and lecturers, but of wider interest; The Square Mile
Charities, Unions & Pressure Groups: groups in the voluntary sector and pressure groups were among the first on the internet -- long before the World-Wide Web came along. Cheap, rapid communication with members and supporters. Not surprisingly they have a huge presence on the internet now. So this is just a starter. Yahoo! is a good search engine to find more.; Labour Research Department valuable statistical resource; Joint Bradford - SIPRI CBW Project information about chemical and biological weapons; Nuclear Weapons The High Energy Weapons Archive - A Guide to Nuclear Weapons; N-BASE Nuclear Information Service; Cyber PicketLine the World trade unions directory; Animal Aid Online animal rights, anti-vivisection, animal experiments, factory farming, vegetarianism, animalaid, animal aid look here to find out what the animal rights lot are up to
Countryside: Countryside Commission
Digital Editing (and other technical things): Digidesign Online excellent site from the suppliers of "ProTools" digital editing systems, includes the Digidesign User Conference a useful forum for exchanging comments and looking for solutions; DAW-Mac List Archive independent discussion forum for "ProTools" users. Pretty high-powered and better than Digidesign's own one; Audio Systems Components Ltd suppliers of recorders, microphones, leads, digital editing systems and all kinds of odds and ends for radio journalists. Real specialists and very helpful. Includes ASC's Bargain List and ASC's Current Special Offers; Cool Edit Forum for users of the popular PC-based digital editing software.; Music & Audio Discussion Forums; BROADCAST ISDN USER GUIDE && DIRECTORY; Quark UK makers of the classic "Quark Express" desktop publishing software used by nearly all newspaper and magazine publishers
Food: Restaurants.co.uk - Comprehensive UK Restaurant Guide
Foreign Countries: Russia on the Net
Hotels: Welcome to Hostels.com / The Internet Guide to Hostelling; The Hotel Guide - An International Hotel Directory and Guide
Languages: European Languages Dictionary; Foreign Languages for Travelers
Maps: UK street maps stunning site, just be realistic -- it's bound to take a while for detailed maps to download. Still very useful if you need a streetmap of a faraway town in a hurry.; Streetmap.com - Complete set of maps on the Internet -- World-wide.; Multimap - Interactive maps of Great Britain; Pedigree automobiles an attractive site for buying and selling classic cars and parts, run by an enthusiast. Paid ads for complete cars, free for parts.; There is a vast number of newspaper sites on the internet. Search for them on:; Paperboy; OR; Media Resources on the Net this is the offering from the main Media Trade Unions; OR; Fleet Street Online excellent listing of world-wide newspapers, magazines, etc; OR the various Search Engines; and here's a few samples; The Times what -- the stuffy old Times on the net? And it's rather good; Washington Post read today's issue in the morning UK time and you'll be seeing it before most Americans!; The Sydney Morning Herald what was that old saying about the Global Village?
Radio: Much the same applies as to newspapers above. Remember if it's a UK radio station you want it's probably on:; Media UK Internet Directory Radio Index; Also there are lots of radio stations broadcasting on the net; Ontheair.com - Live Radio TV and Webcams On The Net; and here's a few other samples; Radio Tele Hong Kong; The BBC Online; Independent Radio News; Welcome to IRDP the independent radio drama producers website -- broadcast-quality independent plays on the net
Relax!: Dilbert Zone the classic antidote to stress -- take 3 times daily and before meetings. New cartoon every day.; Hamster Dance yes, the famous dancing hamsters, spawner of 1000 imitations, but this is the original; The Page of Anxiety if you haven't checked out the above two often enough
Travel: TheTrip.com ··· Everything for the business traveler except the stress; Railtrack now, don't laugh!; Welcome to UK RAILWAYS on the Net general site with links to other rail operators; Lastminute.com the famous late booking holiday web-site that's made its founders into millionaires or something; Cheap Flights, air tickets and travel advice; SeaView -- cruises and ferries; Travel Select - Low Cost Flight Reservations; Foreign & Commonwealth Office - Travel Advice
Weather: Welcome to Online Weather brilliant site -- regional forecasts, 4-day outlooks etc