Nieman Watchdog > Showcase > Web sites for journalists

Web sites for journalists
SHOWCASE | July 01, 2004

Here are some outstanding sites that help journalists do better work.

Profiles of select journalism Web sites can be found below.

Journalism Web sites

Romenesko and Pressthink

Romenesko and Jay Rosen's Pressthink have become essential daily stops on the World Wide Web for anyone interested in the current state of the industry – and its future.

Romenesko ceaselessly updates his site with the latest media-related stories, tidbits and gossip from publications across the Internet. And increasingly, he's linking to himself, because his letters page is one of the liveliest, smartest and best-informed forums around. Plus he Web-publishes internal memos. He's got great sources; they're also his readers.

Rosen is the chair of the journalism school at NYU, and where Romenesko's posts are pithy summaries of hot items, Rosen's are long, thoughtful musings on Big Ideas. And they're the big ideas everyone else will be talking about, too, before long. A fundamentally old-fashioned journalist who is fascinated by the new technology, Rosen writes in his blog's mission statement:

"The people who will invent the next press in America -- and who are doing it now online -- continue an experiment at least 250 years old. It has a powerful social history and political legend attached."

Rosen writes copiously about blogging, but also looks at general-interest topics such as the issue of media bias, news judgment and the relationship between the White House and the press.

IRE Web site

Looking for examples of fine investigative reporting? Look no further than Extra! Extra!, the blog of the Investigative Reporters & Editors Web site.

Derek Willis and the IRE staff update the site daily with links to and descriptions of the latest and greatest investigative works. You can also sort by topic, such as housing or justice.

The main IRE Web site also offers a wide variety of resources for journalists, including some compiled for recent breaking news stories.

Journalism.org (Project for Excellence in Journalism)

Journalism.org is the Web site of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research organization that specializes in using empirical methods to evaluate and study the performance of the press. It is non partisan, non ideological and non political.

Committee of Concerned Journalists

The Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ) is a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics concerned about the future of journalism. Affiliated with the University of Missouri School of Journalism, it conducts traveling workshops and offers a catalog of tools, techniques and ideas, research, and many other resources. From 1997 until 2006, CCJ was affiliated with and administered by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Center for Public Integrity

A nonprofit, nonpartisan group, the Center for Public Integrity conducts investigative research and reporting on public policy issues in the United States and around the world.

Come here for The Buying of the President 2004, continuing coverage of who's bankrolling who -- and what they expect in return.

Use their Media Tracker to find out who controls the media where you live.

See their Global Integrity Report, a comprehensive assessment of the precise extent of openness, accountability and governance in 25 countries that hold elections. It uses a Public Integrity Index to measure the extent of citizens' ability to ensure their government is open and accountable.

Dan Froomkin is the deputy editor of the Nieman Watchdog Project. He is also Senior Washington Correspondent for the Huffington Post.

E-mail: froomkin@niemanwatchdog.org

Comments

Submit a comment - Jump to bottom of list