Comments on: Tools for Journalists...

Question: Tools for Journalists...

Heminator — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:00:10 -0800

Say you're an investigative journalist. What web resources would regularly come in handy for looking into people's backgrounds, sniffing out political info, property information, business/corporate dealings etc.?

By: johngoren

johngoren — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:26:40 -0800

NYT investigative reporter Duff Wilson has a handy collection here.

By: caddis

caddis — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:27:06 -0800

I would get an account with LEXIS/NEXIS.

By: johngoren

johngoren — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:28:30 -0800

Yeah, you can't beat LEXIS for property information and NEXIS for media searches. The system costs an arm and a leg, though.

By: croutonsupafreak

croutonsupafreak — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 08:44:35 -0800

ire.org and powerreporting.com both provide useful links.

By: Happydaz

Happydaz — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 09:13:04 -0800

Johngoren beat me to it, but Duff Wilson is great. Specifically, his Who is John Doe is great. Despite the web, though, there's few things as useful as the city clerk/county recorder for getting info from property tax records to social security numbers (see old marriage licenses), birthdates to previous addresses.

By: Idiot Mittens

Idiot Mittens — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 11:32:34 -0800

Holy crap, those Duff Wilson links are great. That just streamlined about 20 bookmarks into one for me.

By: mds35

mds35 — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 11:49:02 -0800

LEXIS/NEXIS is indeed pricey, but there are relatively inexpensive ways of ganing access to them. If you enroll in or audit certain courses at a community college, for instance, where tuition is low, you might get access to the school's connection. Also, I don't know where you live, Heminator, but in New York, there are "Writer's Spaces" that have L/N accounts available to their members. My friend runs such a place in lower Manhattan with Lexis/Nexis (and OED on-line, too, I think) . Membership begins at $129/month. My email is in my profile if you want more info.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 21:53:47 -0800

mds35 is right; a version of Lexis/Nexis is available in academic libraries under the name "Academic Universe." And public libraries also have extensive, easily searchable databases of journals, newspapers, magazines, etc. Here's my local library's list.