Emerson College Library: Journalism: Best Bets

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Story Reporting Toolbox

Diversity Toolbox - Society for Professional Journalists
"The Diversity Toolbox offers essays and links to resources that will help you broaden the perspectives and voices in your work. Journalists who want to improve their reporting will find valuable help throughout these areas of the site." - SPJ Diversity Toolbox and Sourcebook Online
Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)
Non-profit organization formed in 1975 “to create a forum in which journalists throughout the world could help each other by sharing story ideas, newsgathering techniques and news sources.”
Journalists' Toolbox - Society of Professional Journalists
Current, one-page resource list of must-have tips and tools. Searchable by keyword tag or category. Includes tips and resources for FOIA requests, mining public data, podcasting, covering immigration, covering suicide, covering sexual assault, and how to handle data visualizations.
Journalists Resource
Extensive collection of resources on “today’s news topics” for journalists, arranged by subject. Produced by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. Includes Tip Sheets with Dos and Don'ts by topic.

Dynamics of News Reporting and Writing: foundational skills for a digital age by Vincent F. Filak
Call Number: PN4775 .F45 2019
ISBN: 9781506344744
Publication Date: 2019

Reputable Fact-Checking Websites
Taken from Creative Commons free ebook, "Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers," by Michael A. Caulfield.
STATScheck - American Statistical Association
Tool for professional journalists analyzing big data and stats. Maintain accurate representation of data with expert advice.
Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers [electronic resource] by Michael Caulfield
"This is an unabashedly practical guide for the student fact-checker. It supplements generic information literacy with the specific web-based techniques that can get you closer to the truth on the web more quickly." - from the author, Michael A. Caulfield

Associated Press (AP) Images This link opens in a new window
Contains hundreds of thousands of photos and graphics from the Associated Press, most taken since 1995, plus historical images dating back to the 1800s.
SnapStream This link opens in a new window
Cloud-based DVR subscription set to record news broadcasts from nine stations: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, Univision, ESPN, and NECN. Recorded broadcasts can be edited into smaller clips and emailed. Transcripts are included. Search by keyword, show, description, segment, etc. Courtesy of the Emerson Journalism Department. Students must request access and agree to the terms of use before first use: https://bit.ly/snapstreamaccess.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Provides current data, detailed analysis, consumer attitudes, and infographics on a variety of topics and industries. Examples of coverage include agriculture, advertising (including adspend and ad reach), book and digital publishing, radio, television, public relations, health, hospitality, consumer goods, and much more. Also offers Market Outlooks (market size, forecasts, and indicators for the digital economy), and Country Profiles with key socioeconomic indicators.
Vanderbilt Television News Archive This link opens in a new window
Index of more than 900,000 evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks, and more than 9,000 hours of special news-related programming including ABC's Nightline since 1989. NBC Evening News since 1968 and CNN broadcasts from October 1995 can be viewed online.

Data and Statistics
by Emerson Reference Last Updated Jul 10, 2024 96 views this year

STATScheck - American Statistical Association
Tool for professional journalists analyzing big data and stats. Maintain accurate representation of data with expert advice.
Reputable Fact-Checking Websites
Taken from Creative Commons free ebook, "Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers," by Michael A. Caulfield.

CITY

Analyze Boston
City of Boston's open data hub for municipal and demographic data sets and maps. Topics include housing, crime, transportation, education, utilities, digital access, public works, taxes and permits, 311 service requests, environmental impact, and much more, Platform is managed by the Citywide Analytics Team
Boston Business Journal Book of Lists
Call Number: Emerson Reference [X Ready Ref] HF 3163 .B6 B66 Also online through the Boston Business Journal database.
Boston Community Centers - List and Map
Listing of each community center's upcoming events, recurring programming by target audience (adults, teens, kids), and contact information.
Boston Events Calendar
Includes community meetings and public hearings.
Boston Indicators Project
From the Boston Foundation, trends, data, and reports on numerous subjects, including the economy, the arts, education, energy & the environment, and more.
Boston Redevelopment Authority - Research & Publications
Demographics and trends at the city or neighborhood level. (See Frequently Requested Information). Includes historical trends and demography, as well as GIS and historical maps. Previously known as Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA).
Brookline Open Data Portal
Demographics, surveys, taxes, permits, parks, and more.
Somerville Open Data Portal
Demographics, surveys, taxes, permits, parks, and more.
Universal Hub
Crowd-sourced, as-it-happens news and reporting from Boston residents.

STATE

Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Search MA bills and laws, view the MA constitution, search budget details, search profiles of legislators, see upcoming hearings and events.
State Library of Massachusetts
Legal and state-related documents and materials of Massachusetts.

Polling the Nations This link opens in a new window
Results from over 12,000 surveys on a variety of topics.

UNITED STATES

Data.gov
Statistics and datasets collected by the federal government. Topics include energy, economics, climate, manufacturing, health care, education, employment, wages, local governments, etc. Includes datasets from:

Bureau of Labor Statistics
Centers for Disease Control
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Food and Drug Administration (OpenFDA)
GlobalChange.gov (includes climate and environment data)
National Center for Education Statistics
National Library of Medicine
U.S. Census
and more.

Polling the Nations This link opens in a new window
Results from over 12,000 surveys on a variety of topics.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Provides current data, detailed analysis, consumer attitudes, and infographics on a variety of topics and industries. Examples of coverage include agriculture, advertising (including adspend and ad reach), book and digital publishing, radio, television, public relations, health, hospitality, consumer goods, and much more. Also offers Market Outlooks (market size, forecasts, and indicators for the digital economy), and Country Profiles with key socioeconomic indicators.

U.S. Census Bureau
Browse demographics by topic (education, health, poverty, income, employment, etc), or by survey type: American Community Survey, American Housing Survey, American Business Survey, etc

iFOIA - Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
"iFOIA is a project of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. It allows registered users to create, send, maintain and share FOI requests at the state and federal level. Use of iFOIA by anyone constitutes acceptance of our Terms & Conditions. Funding for iFOIA was provided by the Stanton Foundation."
FOIA.gov
U.S. government portal for researching the type of information needed, the agency holding that information, and submitting an online request for that information.
Federal Open Government Guide - Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Press guide to researching and submitting a FOIA request for information. Includes rules, limitations, and exceptions for FOIA requests.
State Open Government Guide: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
"Compendium of information on every state's open records and open meetings laws. Each state's section is arranged according to a standard outline, making it easy to compare laws in various states. If you're a new user of this guide, be sure to read the Introductory Note and User's Guide."

Find news and summaries of different viewpoints by selected topic.

AllSides.com
Topic-based news from the left, right, and center. Rates article levels of bias.

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Weekly reports on topics of current interest, with pro and con arguments. Limited to 5 users at a time.
Global Issues in Context This link opens in a new window
Offers international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics, and current events. Featured are hundreds of continuously updated issue and country portals that bring together a variety of specially selected, highly relevant sources for analysis of social, political, military, economic, environmental, health, and cultural issues. Includes access to several international news sources.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
Provides issue-based information on controversial topics. Strong emphasis on pro and con viewpoint articles, with additional reference articles, primary sources, and statistics for context.

Topic Summaries

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Collection of virtual encyclopedias with over 3 million entries from 300+ reference books in a variety of subjects.
Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Searchable encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research in the arts and sciences.

TimeLine
Easy to use, free tool to create timelines.
Internet Wayback Machine
Search cached web pages and websites from 1996 to the present.
Google News Initiative - Tools
Create timelines, search public data, create infographics and data visualizations, build crisis maps, view Google Trends, or try out Google Elections Databot.

AP (Associated Press) Stylebook [electronic resource] This link opens in a new window
Contains AP’s rules for abbreviations, capitalization, numerals, punctuation, word usage and other issues regarding language and customs for print, online and broadcast journalists. It also has guides on legal issues, social media and pronunciation. Limited to 25 simultaneous users.

Associated Press Stylebook (print editions)
Sort by "Date Newest" to see most current available editions. Library usually buys current year's edition.
Common Errors in English Usage
Searchable internet glossary of errors includes common misspellings of words, numbers, and names; erroneous homonyms; misspelled and misused expressions.
Diversity Style Guide - Society of Professional Journalists
"a resource to help journalists and other media professionals cover a complex, multicultural world with accuracy, authority and sensitivity. The guide includes terms and phrases related to race/ethnicity; religion; sexual orientation; gender identity; age and generation; drugs and alcohol; and physical, mental and cognitive disabilities." - Diversity Stylebook, About

Multisearch

Multisearch Hacks
Get faster, more focused results with these search strategies. Applicable to Multisearch, and to other EBSCO-brand library databases.

Multisearch Help
Sometimes you need to go straight to the source. EBSCO's Help menu offers authoritative instruction on creating a strong search; auto-formatting a citation; emailing, batch-emailing, printing, or saving an article; saving articles in a temporary folder; saving a search or email alert for newly published articles on your designated topic, and more.

Journalism

Story Reporting Toolbox

Multisearch

MultiSearch