Wikinews:Research Desk

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Welcome to the Research Desk
Saturday 10 May 2008  22:36 UTC, English Wikinews has written 12,350 articlesOther Wikinews Resources:Style guideCite sourcesContent guideAudio Wikinews
Saturday 10 May 2008 22:36 UTC, English Wikinews has written 12,350 articles
Other Wikinews Resources:
Style guide
Cite sources
Content guide
Audio Wikinews
Who died and left you to write about it?

The first is a good question; the answer to the second is: we did.

The Wikinews Research Desk aims to be the Original Reporter's best sidekick. It can also be a place to start. To peruse and check out the press releases of influential organizations. Why do they think it is important the public knows that information, and how have people responded to it? Or look for something light to write! For instance: What were the top grossing films last month? BoxOffice Mojo's numbers are used by most major media outlets. Was your favorite television program renewed? What are the headlines from around the world about the U.S. Presidential election? You can write a story by clicking on their coverage below. What is the latest global warming news? What is the difference between British, American and Canadian public health advisories? Is Avian Flu still a major threat to humanity these days? Why not create a four or five 'news shorts' article on what happened in Ireland today? Where is the hot art market? What are people protesting, where, and why? Who is INTERPOL looking for, and what did he or she do?

You can find answers to all these questions, and come up with your own, by exploring the links below. Happy writing.

Shortcut: WN:Research

[edit] Have a story? Stuck for ideas? You are in the right place

[edit] Government Statistics News in Selected Countries

Wikinews stories: Portal:World

Locations chosen by availability in English language

  • United Kingdom - a news goldmine for UK stats that you can write about. Constantly updating not only things such as the average height and weight of a child in the UK, but current market trends, tourism trends, press releases.
  • Ireland - Is inflation increasing in Europe's economic miracle? Are they traveling more? Where do the Irish travel? How much do they make now? What do they do die of, and are they raping/killing/robbing each other more, or less, than they were last year? If these questions grab you, write a story.
  • United States A site that leads you to everything you could possibly want to know about the United States, its agencies and statistics. This is a site if you know what you're curious about: it's Spartan, but it will lead the focused to anything he or she could possibly want to know about America, from Department of Energy press releases to how many obese people live in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
  • Australian government's site disappoints in that it fails to showcase what is important in Australian statistics. You can go to their media releases, but it feels like a joyless task when you do. Essentially: a site perfect for those with an Australian headline in mind, but terrible for the casual story idea seeker.
  • New Zealand A site that is frequently updated, but with headlines that fail to inspire. If you can craft a multi-source story from titles such as "Births at 44 Year High" and "More beverages available with less alcohol content" then you are welcome to attempt to write it.
  • South Africa a site that pretends to seem interactive, updated and worthwhile turns out to be a pig wearing lipstick: a dusty site that is a dumping ground where pork barrel studies go to die. Maybe some worthwhile information, but don't expect it to help you spot the important societal changes like the the UK or Ireland stat sites.
  • Canada This is a model site for the people, and prime for OR story ideas. From employment to gas sales to hourly earnings to family violence. You can hunt around on here and come up with a Canadian angle.
  • India a site that will appeal to the amateur anthropologist in all of us. In such a multi-dimensional society, a site that is "just the facts, please' and is better for researching pre-conceived questions than to surf for possible angles for a story.



[edit] United States Federal Election 2008



[edit] English News Sources From Around the World

This is a collection of a few English language sources for various countries and organizations. For even more sources by region, including native language resources, please see Wikinews:Global Networking.

[edit]

Asia

Wikinews stories: Portal:Asia

[edit]

Africa and Middle East

Wikinews stories: Portal:Africa
Wikinews stories: Portal:Middle East
  • Save Darfur press releases - an important story of our time, some attempts to keep it updated on here should be made
  • African Union News and Events
  • BBC Middle East
  • Arab News The First English Daily Newspaper in Saudi Arabia, published simultaneously from Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran
  • Al Jazeera, controversial Arabic news services English site

[edit]

Israel

Wikinews stories: Portal:Israel
  • Haaretz, Israel Daily with a respected reputation; widely read in Israel, Hebrew and English
  • Jerusalem Post, English language daily; not widely read in Israel but influential in the United States; reputation as conservative (even neoconservative)
  • Palestinian Authority news from the Middle East Media Research Center, an "independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization. MEMRI's headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in London, Tokyo, Rome, Baghdad and Jerusalem. MEMRI research is translated to English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese."

[edit]

South Africa

Wikinews stories: Portal:South Africa

[edit]

Australia

Wikinews stories: Portal:Australia
  • Sydney Morning Herald, founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously-published newspaper in Australia.
  • The Age, a broadsheet daily newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne since 1854
  • The Australian, the first national paper, a News Corp. property

[edit]

Canada

Wikinews stories: Portal:Canada
  • Macleans, a widely-read weekly news magazine.
  • Globe and Mail Canada's "New York Times"
  • National Post, National paper owned by News Corp. with intent to take on Globe & Mail; has come up in respectability
  • Canada.com, very comprehensive and free website run by one of Canada's mega-giant media companies,CanWest Global Communications

[edit]

Ireland

Wikinews stories: Portal:Ireland

[edit]

New Zealand

Wikinews stories: Portal:New Zealand

[edit]

United States

Wikinews stories: Portal:United States

[edit]

United Kingdom

Wikinews stories: Portal:United Kingdom

[edit]

International English language

  • Agence France news ticker. Only headlines, but excellent to find out quick soundbites and updated. Write the stories to the headlines you read here on Wikinews. Just research it using other sources.
  • United Nations News Service, the UN's news site
  • Japan Today, magazine-style news items about Japanese business and politics, with discussion groups
  • China Daily (PROC government-controlled)



[edit] Internet

Wikinews stories: Portal:Internet
  • YouTube clips that are making news - has something shown up on YouTube recently people are talking about (and you should write about)?
  • Online Journalism News (UK) "The Essential Site for Journalists"
  • Wikileaks (currently inoperative, see Here for status
  • Drudge Report, say what you will, he breaks stories and everyone reads him. Important during 2008 election; so many links to so many political sites, that alone makes it good for research
  • Huffington Post, same as Drudge, and very notable columnists. Political news aggregators and other features make it handy for research



[edit] Government



[edit] Economy and business

Wikinews stories: Portal:Economy and business

[edit]

International organizations data

[edit]

Government business/economic resources

[edit]

News media

[edit]

Markets

[edit]

Industries



[edit] Military, Defense and War




[edit] Media, culture and entertainment

[edit] Music

Wikinews stories: Portal:Music

[edit] Art

Wikinews stories: :Category:Art
  • Artnet news, including art market trends, upcoming events, international
  • The Art Newspaper includes the drama and intrigue of the art scene

[edit] Film

Wikinews stories: Portal:Film

[edit] Journalism and media

Wikinews stories: :Category:Media

[edit] Theatre

Wikinews stories: :Category:Theatre

[edit] Books

Wikinews stories: :Category:Literature

[edit] Fashion

[edit] Television

Wikinews stories: Portal:Television



[edit] Major Global Cities: Press Releases

Wikinews stories: :Category:London
Wikinews stories: Portal:New York
Wikinews stories: Portal:Washington, D.C.
Wikinews stories: :Category:Sydney
Wikinews stories: :Category:Dublin



[edit] Journals and Scholarship

  • Google Scholar, which indexes the full text of scholarly research journals
  • CiteSeer public search engine and digital library for scientific and academic papers.



[edit] Deaths, Medical and Health

Wikinews stories: Portal:Health

[edit]

Australia

[edit]

Canada

  • Health Canada, government site with advisories, warnings and recalls.

[edit]

United Kingdom

[edit]

United States

[edit]

International

  • Latest Avian Flu News from the WHO
  • World Health Organization Country Statistics
  • Health Square.com information on Prescription Drug Indications, Dosage, Warnings and Possible Interactions; Color Pill Images; Patient Information Pamphlets, outlining what to expect when dealing with various conditions, required tests and treatments; and detailed information and color illustrations regarding the diagnosis, cause and treatment of most major health problems.

[edit] Obituaries

Wikinews stories: Portal:Obituaries



[edit] Environment, Science and technology



[edit] Protests and media releases

  • Protest.net, a global site listing information about protest events and locations.
  • PR Newswire, a site that presents news the article subject's want you to know, from their perspective



[edit] Advocacy groups and activists

[edit] Wikimedia Research and Tools

Wikinews stories: Portal:Wikimedia



[edit] Legal Research

Wikinews stories: Portal:Crime and law

[edit] United States



[edit] Accredited Reporter's Corner

[edit] Professionalism

See also: Wikinews:Code of Ethics

[edit] Your rights as a reporter and photographer

[edit]

Australia

[edit]

New Zealand

[edit]

United Kingdom

[edit]

United States

[edit] Writing help

[edit] Language Translation Services

After You Research Your Article: Images
Wikinews Picture of the Year 2007: A good image in a news article will relate instantly to the viewer as many important elements of the topic as possible.
Wikinews Picture of the Year 2007: A good image in a news article will relate instantly to the viewer as many important elements of the topic as possible.
See also: Wikinews:Image use policy

[edit] You need images for your articles

Images, such as the one in the opening paragraph courtesy of the French Wikinews, or the current English Wikinews Picture of the Year, are as important as the text. When an image is present in a story, no matter how good the prose the image can make or break a reader's impression. A good Wikinews reporter will contemplate aspects of their story, and find free media (or fair use) to illustrate their story. For instance, on Wikipedia there is an article about Mark Barnes, a notable attorney some readers might find uninteresting. But on that page you can see how media can be used to make a subject dynamic; for instance, a letter written by the subject's students and a portrait of his ancestor, Daniel Boone, are incorporated. Look for the interesting, relevant angle when you choose media.

[edit] Where to find images

Wikimedia Commons

Your first stop for stock photos. The easiest way of finding freely licensed images is to search the Wikimedia Commons project. All images on Commons are freely licensed and can be used in articles as if they are hosted locally.

Wikipedia as a photo Sherpa

Another option is to look at any relevant Wikipedia articles and see if any appropriate images are available there but note that not all images on Wikipedia are freely licensed and if that is the case then their use here must also comply with fair use. In theory Wikipedia editors have come to consensus as to the best photos to illustrate a topic, although the surest judgment is to search the Commons. Still, Wikipedia, or another Wikimedia Foundation project, may be organized in a manner that makes it easy to find a good stock photo for a news article you can freely use.

If a freely licensed image still cannot be located then it may be possible to find one on an external website which you can upload to Commons. It is important that it is explicitly stated that the image is released under a compatible licence, see Commons:Licensing for information.

There are likely to be exceptions but the websites listed below are known to host some freely licensed image files. If after searching a freely licensed image cannot be located then consider asking a photographer to release an image under a compatible licence, see Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission for advice on doing this.

If all else fails, try theses sites for free media
  • Flickr, note that only the Attribution (CC-BY) and the Attribution ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) licences are permitted
  • National Archives, it may take some hunting, but it's all free
  • NASA Images all free, space, sun, moons, stars
  • US Government archive of free photos; seems like a lot on offer of random things few people need. But worth a look.
  • Library of Congress Memory project. Very historical. Unless Alexander Graham Bell fits in your story, may have trouble with modern topics.
  • yotophoto like google images, but for free photos (be warned their definition of free sometimes differs from wikimedia's)
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