Nothing new or groundbreaking here, but here’s a list of some fun/useful Web sites that might be helpful for young journalists.
The Obvious Ones
Facebook — If you’re not on it (and really, not many people aren’t these days), stop making up excuses. You can’t seem to get in touch with someone? Try messaging them via Facebook. You’d be surprised how many people are addicted to checking their Facebook accounts. Also, you’d be surprised how many put their phone numbers on their personal pages and what politicans have listed.
Twitter — People seem to either love or hate Twitter. It’s tough to get started and update regularly, but once you start “following” people regularly, it’s worth it. News organizations, friends and other users can post news stories or their own thoughts giving you more news to read or potentially story ideas. Read an old post by Dan Victor of the Harrisburg Patriot-News about his trial with Twitter.
LinkedIN — Network, network, network with all the other journos/webbies you know. You never know when a connection may come in handy.
Easy-to-use sites
WordPress and/or Blogger — If you don’t have a blog, make one. Chances are, you’re going to have to blog at some point, so you might as well start practicing now. These are free and easy to use.
Weebly — Want to make your own Web site for your clips or resume. Try weebly. Back in January, I put my clips up and started including it in my cover letters. When I started going on job interviews last spring, editors asked about it. My colleague at News Service of Florida, Keith Laing, used WordPress for this.
Fun Things
Wordle — I blogged about Wordle a week ago, and I still think it’s fun to play around with. Take a big speech and see which words are most important. Here’s GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin’s convention speech.
Tinyurl — I’m not sure there is a practical purpose, but this makes your url shorter. It’s helpful for twitter posts when you need to save your characters for actual text.
Digsby — Truly an amazing thing. I have fellow Penn Stater and journo Kat Lackey to thank for it. The web application can combine your gmail chat contacts and your IM contacts all into one list. Plus, it keeps tab on your gmail, facebook and twitter accounts, so you don’t have to keep all of those windows open.
Just good links
Alternatives to Google — Google may be the most common search engine, but there are alternatives. Here’s a big, long list of them.
Refdesk journalism tools — If you’ve never checked our refdesk.com, you should. It has links to news organizations all over the world, plus every possible to link to any subject you might need to know about. Here’s their page specifically for journalism resources.
