The funny thing about being a citizen journalist is that most don’t even realize that’s what they are. There are countless folks across the Internet who spend time researching political issues, criminal cases and even simple local news stories – simply for the joy and experience of uncovering a truth that they can share with the public. It’s for this reason that this month I wanted to share the article titled, Top 5 Online Resources for the Citizen Journalist over at MakeUseOf.
What the Article Included
Published on January 11th, 2009, this article featured a list of the more common online websites and tools that I find myself using whenever I’m digging into a story or conducting an investigation. These days, that’s a lot more than I ever imagined it would be. Between regular research for online articles, and the paranormal and scientific examinations that we do at RealityUncovered, I’m usually kept pretty busy. This is in combination with a regular workload of regular monthly articles, so life can get pretty hectic sometimes.
The resources I added to this article included:
- Journalism.org – Run by the Pew Research Center
- A Journalist’s Guide to the Internet – by Christopher Callahan
- RefDesk.com – an amazing resource
- Newscri.be – an amazing popular news tracker
- Public and criminal record search resources
- Several news submissions websites that publish work by citizen journalists
Many people don’t realize how powerful the written word can be when it gets published at any of the high profile news sites that accept news stories submitted by citizens. They say the pen is mightier than the sword – well that axiom was never more true than it is in the field of journalism.
This was a fun article to write, and I’m proud to have it published at MakeUseOf, the top technology blog on the Internet.
