Introduction: Knowledge is rarely just a Google away. You need to be able to find stories and sources from social media, from official online sources, and from previous stories, many of which are hidden in online databases.
Learning objectives:
- Use social media to find experts and people engaged in your beat both locally and globally.
- Use the Web to find news sites, organizations, and previous stories written about your beat.
- Use news databases to find archival stories about your beat.
Steps to completion:
Background:
- Watch this video about doing database research:
- Find three older stories (pre-2013) from your beat using Lexis-Nexis and/or NewsBank. Write a blog post summarizing the stories and they are interesting or relevant today using the appropriate category and the tag “old stories” by August 31.
- Find a total of 10 sources (individuals, local experts, national experts) on social media and embed their profiles in a blog post on your beat vertical using the appropriate category and the tag “social media” by Sept. 2
- Find five organizations (news media, think tanks, nonprofits, businesses, local government, etc.) producing information useful and relevant for your beat. Post links (use hyperlinks, don’t paste in URLs) using the appropriate category and the tag “organizations” by Sept. 2.
Reflective:
- Class discussion August 30: Research scavenger hunt and categories
- Class discussion September 1: Interviews and story brainstorming
Exploratory
- Follow-up research: Find five more stories from any time period relevant to your beat as you define it. Summarize them in a short blog post in your beat vertical using the tag “more research” by Sept. 5.
- Come up with at least 10 story ideas for your beat and list them in one-sentence summaries in a blog post on your beat vertical titled “brainstorming” by Sept. 5.