Most people tend to respect news which is backed up by information posted on websites of the major media, universities, or government sources. Below are a few key Internet research tips to find reliable sources like these for your articles. The tips covered are:
* How to find the strongest source for your information
* How to find reliable sources when you only have text
* Set your search results to 100
* Take advantage of the "Cache" link
* Find disappeared articles when you have the URL
* Use search engines to search a single website
* Search for reliable videos
* Consider a "What You Can Do" section
How to Find the Strongest Source for Your Information
Readers will generally trust what you write more if you include links to reliable sources for any key information provided in articles you write. A little Internet research can greatly strengthen your sources. If you receive some powerful information you want to include in an article, but it's not from a strong source:
* Pick out several of the key words which would identify all articles written on the topic.
* Type them into a search engine.
* On the results list, scan the URLs at the bottom or each entry.
* Look for the most reliable source listed.
If you don't immediately find a good source, search both on the search engine's news and its regular search page, as the news page often does not include all results from news websites, where the regular search is more complete. You may find the news reported on a respected news website. Note that entries to the news searches usually are deleted after about one month, so you won't find older media articles there.
How to Find Reliable Sources When You Only Have Text
If you receive the text of an article you want to use that claims to be from a major news, government, or other reliable source but no link is given, or the link is to an alternative news website, you can usually find the original article easily on its source website:
* Copy a string of seven to ten words or so from the text. It is better to find text with less commonly used words.
* Copy that string into your favorite search engine and put quotation marks on both ends. This limits the search to only webpages with that exact string and order of words.
* Click "Search"
* Scan the URLs at the bottom of each entry listed to find the news website.
* If the list is too long, click on the "News" link in the string of links at the very top left of the page on Google or in the dropdown menu on Yahoo. This limits the search to pages from websites defined as news websites by these search engines. It may be worth your while to search both Google and Yahoo, as they often differ.
For articles from a news agency like AP or AFP, some people trust it more if it is picked up by a website like MSNBC, ABC, New York Times, etc. By doing a search on a string of words as instructed above, you will often find the article published on a major media website.
Note that if a legitimate, but important AP article is not picked up by other media sites, you can then be fairly certain it is being censored by media ownership. In my extensive research on the Internet, I have found this happens often with subjects most sensitive to the power elite of our world. For clear examples of this by numerous award-winning journalists, click here.
If you are watching a video clip of a news report and want to find it online, you can use the same techniques above. Type in a string of words spoken in the video, and you will often find the report posted on the website.
Set Your Search Results to 100
To ease your searches, set your search engine to display 100 results. Here are directions to do so using Google. Yahoo is similar, though the page you want is under the link "Options" and then "Settings.".
* Go the settings link - to the right of the search button on Google.
* Scroll down to "Number of Results" and change it to 100. This makes searching through more than 10 results much easier.
* Click "Save Preferences" and you are done.
* In that same window you might want to choose "Open search results in a new browser window."
Take Advantage of the "Cache" Link
If you click on a search entry and it gives you a blank page or an error message, it will usually still be available at that cache link. The "Cache" button at the bottom right of search entries on both Google and Yahoo has a recorded image of the page. You might want to download and save the entire page, as it will likely disappear from the search engine before too long if the webpage has been removed.
Find Disappeared Articles When You Have the URL
If you have the URL of an important web page, but the page has been removed, you can often still find it using the Internet archive:
* Copy the URL
* Go to http://www.archive.org.
* If there is anything in the "Wayback Machine" box, delete it.
* Paste what you've copied into the box and click the "Take Me Back" button.
* Click on any date for the original article as it was posted on the date listed.
The above method will show you exactly how the webpage looked on the date it was copied into the archive. Please note, however, that any website can request not to be listed on the Internet archive. Unfortunately, many major media websites have done this. If this is the case, you may or may not be able to find the article on another website using a quote from the original article, as mentioned above.
Use Search Engines to Search a Single Website
When want to search for something on a specific website, there is a way to refine your search so that the entries listed only come from the specified website. In the search engine, simply type "site:" then enter the site's URL, no quotation marks. Type in a space and then whatever you want to search. When entering the site, http:// and www are not necessary, but there must be no space between the colon after the word "site" and the URL.
Search for Reliable Videos
You can sometimes find video coverage of key information by doing a simple video search using key words at http://video.google.com. Google owns both Google Video and YouTube. They also list many other video websites on the video search page, so searching this one resource gives you search results for most popular video websites online. A few times I've been amazed to find video footage of sensitive articles which disappeared from their source website.
Consider a "What You Can Do" Section
The Internet search tips should help you to find the most solid sources available for articles you write. If you want to recommend to your readers to contact the media and their political representatives, you can use this link or post the information from the link. You might also want to include a "What You Can Do" box like that below. It empowers people to join in spreading the word and making a difference. I also invite you to comment below and share any tips you might have.
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