Author Archives: Barbara Fought

Sep 29

Help with news story ideas on environment

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Barbara Fought

Stuck for story ideas? Get the free  biweekly email or RSS of  story leads from Society for Environmental  Journalists, @sejorg. The list includes 4-5 leads every other week and it tips you off on reports to be issued, trends or … Read More →

Posted in Finding Stories | Leave a comment
Sep 23

Get better results in Internet searches with phrase searching

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Barbara Fought

For better results w/ Google, Bing, Yahoo!, use quotes around a phrase. “Skaneateles Festival” nets 80% fewer results than the two words alone do. The first, “Skaneateles Festival”  will give you every page that has both words back-to-back on it. … Read More →

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Sep 20

Set grandma straight by snopes-ing that email!

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Barbara Fought

Think one of those warning emails from your grandma about bad fast food or dangers at the gas pump is a story? Check out snopes.com What started as a hobby for a California couple, @snopes,  became a small business in … Read More →

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Sep 16

Internet search tip: searching key words at a website

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Barbara Fought

To search on just one website, not the whole ‘net,  use this formula to filter — keyword site:xxx.com and only that keyword, at that site, comes up.  For example if you  knew I (Barbara Fought) worked at the Newhouse School … Read More →

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Sep 12

Where’d that photo come from?

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Barbara Fought

Wonder if an online photo was altered or need to see where or when  it first appeared? Save the photo file and then copy the file name in Tineye.com.  @Tin Eye will  spit out links to all the online sites … Read More →

Posted in Finding Sources | Leave a comment
Sep 10

Internet search tip: Try another search engine

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Barbara Fought

Think all search engines are alike? Not so!  Compare how different they are at  thumbshots or BlindSearch. When I do training, most people are surprised that the search engines come up with quite different results. Research shows most of us … Read More →

Posted in Searching | Tagged , | 1 Comment
Sep 08

Find news sources with Foursquare

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Barbara Fought

Need a quality source at a certain venue? Find the mayor for it on @foursquare. Use the mayor’s links to @twitter and @facebook for contact info. In a breaking news situation, you can generally easily get sound or quotes from … Read More →

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Sep 06

Follow website changes

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Barbara Fought

Follow changes or new info at a company or organization website by setting alerts such as watchthatpage.com to tell you when its homepage changes. Or any interior page.  It’s free! You can have the updates sent as frequently as you … Read More →

Posted in Continuing Coverage | Leave a comment
Aug 24

Ready Reporter Launches Sept 6

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Barbara Fought

Reporters are being asked to do more and more — find good stories, report them in multiple platforms, tweet and engage viewers/readers/listeners on social media. Ready Reporter is here to help reporters work quicker, better and smarter online. Ready Reporter … Read More →

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