JOUR 384 Online Journalism Lesson 2: Internet Research Metin Ersoy FCMS

Internet Research There are two main tasks for the journalist – the gathering (toplama) of the news materials and their dissemination (yayma). Online can have a striking impact on this work, helping you trace information, come up with story ideas and find sources, contacts and potential interviewees.

Internet Research Four Elements of ‘gathering in’  Finding information  Finding people  Checking information  Analaysing information

Internet Research Four Elements of ‘gathering in’  Finding information: A broad heading, which could include documents, data, photographs, audio, video, etc.  Finding people: Not just named individuals, but also tapping into debate, current thinking, trends and fashions.  Checking information: Using online reference resources.  Analysing information: In particular data.

Internet Research Finding information – the World Wide Web  You need information at every stage of the news identification and collection process. Not just specific information to develop your story, but contextual stuff that will bolster (destekleyici) your knowledge of underpinning structures and current affairs.

Internet Research Finding information – the World Wide Web Much of the information available online is posted on the World Wide Web. Recent studies put the number of documents on the Web at over one billion, and this is estimated to grow to over 13 billion pages by This is where the trouble starts. The Web is not like a library and it does not have a single comprehensive catalogue or an ordered system of storage. At an early stage, learn to think as clearly as possible about what you are looking for before you go online.

Internet Research All sites have an address, which is known as the uniform resource locator (URL). Every page on every site will have its own distinctive address with the site URL as its root. So that URL for the Kibris Newspaper site is kibrisgazetesi.com

Internet Research Domains that denote the purpose of the organization include: .com, which is commercial; .edu, which is education; .gov, which is government; .int, which is international organizations; .net, which is networks; and .org, which is non-commercial organizations.

Internet Research The geographical codes are often more clear cut, for example.tr is Turkey and.cy is Cyprus. However, some would be more difficult to guess. Neither Portugal (.pt) or Poland (.pl) have the code.po. As can be seen from the list above, some domains combine the two. The Eastern Mediterranean University is a University in the North Cyprus. Its URL is emu.edu.tr. If we break that down we can see the following:  emu. (Eastern Mediterranean University);  edu. (Education domain); and  tr. (Turkey domain)

Internet Research How to look further  To discover the true value of the web as a resource, you will have to search it. Before you do this, you must ask yourself two important ‘bottom- up’ questions.  What type of information am I looking for? Deconstruct the potential story and look at its component parts. What sort of information, opinion and data will help to develop the story or help to brief you?

Internet Research How to look further  Where am I likely to find it? Can the web sites you already know and trust give you the information you need? If they cannot, you should consider which search tool will the most appropriate and efficient.

Internet Research Search tools  Search engines, are one way of searching the Web, but they are not the only search tool. There are others that can be more effective depending on what you need.  Search engines are hugely powerful pieces of software that search for web content.  Some examples of search engines are: AltaVista – Google –

Internet Research Each engine provides a box to type in the `keywords` of the material you are looking for. Your choice of these keywords plays a large part in the success of your search. Normally, the engine will scan web pages looking for meta data that matches your keywords. Meta data is part of the HTML code for each web page, inserted by the page’s author but hidden from view unless you look for it.

Internet Research Search engines also have different methods of searching. However, considering that the Web currently has an estimated billion pages, no search engine will look everywhere on the Web.

Internet Research Google is one of the best search engines. Note the simplicity of the initial interface, inviting you to try the search function.

Internet Research Meta search engines  It is a search engine that harnesses the power other search engines. It searches the other search engines, rather than building its own database.  As an example for meta-search engine is: Dogpile (

Internet Research Dogpile (

Internet Research Subject directories  Some people might name their favorite search engine as Yahoo!, but Yahoo! is a subject directory not a search engine.  Yahoo! as a subject directory, has been compiled by human beings. This means you can browse through a database of handpicked sites organized under subject headings.

Internet Research Subject guides  They are usually web sites run by individual experts in their fields.  They focus on a single subject and contain many links to other relevant sites and some useful additional information, comment and evaluation bye the site provides.  Example of subject guides web site; Virtual Library (

Internet Research Virtual Library (

Internet Research Simple arithmetic  AND (same as +)  NOT (same as -)  OR

Internet Research Simple guiding principles for searching online 1. Is it general search or a specific query (sorguya çekmek)? 2. Any online search you conduct is not a ‘stand alone’. You still nee the underpinning your knowledge of current affairs, political structure, etc. 3. Be patient. 4. Most importantly, remember that seeing is not believing. Just because it’s on a screen, it does not mean that it’s true.

Internet Research Simple tips for faster searching 1. If you know the name of the organization, it can save a lot of time. 2. When looking through a long document retrieved by a search tool, press Control and F on your keyboard. 3. Know when to stop looking. 4. pdf

Internet Research