I want to use Twitter to follow the news streaming from today’s crises but I don’t want these stories to dominate my main Twitter timeline. The way to get around that is to create lists of special interest Tweeters to visit when I have time. I can pull down the “List” menu on the Twitter homepage to select Tweet streams by hand. Or, I can visit Listorious to search for pre-built subject lists along with most influential contributors on the subject.
What is the relationship between the press and democracy? Find out at the Newseum where, “Every morning, more than 800 newspapers from around the world submit their front pages to the Newseum via the Internet to be part of Today’s Front Pages.” View the daily web gallery of newspaper images by alphabetical order, region, or from a map display. View their archived pages of important recent events. The Newseum is a real news museum in Washington, D.C. Visit when you are in town.
Newspapers are not dead yet, at least in their cyberspace version. Australia’s OnlineNewspapers.com offers links to thousands of newspaper web sites from around the world. Read them in their original language or have Google machine translate them for you. Of course, where the state controls the media (in Libya, for example), understand that you are getting a skewed view of the news. Still, you get a perspective that you will not get from the media in the United States.
“The lede of a newspaper’s front page is the main story,” this blog explains. “The lede of an article is the way it begins: the statement of facts or the anecdote that the writer lays out to lead readers into a story.” Every day, Robert Mackey synthesizes the big news story of the day as it is reported across the web on Twitter, blogs, and leading news sources including The New York Times. Readers are invited to contribute their own eyewitness accounts, videos and photos to the blog. The Lede’s blogroll offers easy links to other news and video sites along with important blogs, features, and commentaries. This is a great way to stay informed about national and international events.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com
Use Twitterfall to follow events as they unfold on Twitter. British 20-somethings Tom Brearley and David Somers created this site that lets users filter tweets by topic. Here, comments about the nuclear problems caused by the March 11 earthquake off of Japan are pulled out by the hashtag #earthquake and #Fukushima, the name of the prefecture where the damaged reactors are located.
This online blog synthesizes recently breaking news, summarizing key news topics from many sources. Although it is called “The Week”, the site is current, publishing stories within hours of events. The site also offers editorial opinion from recognized pundits from both the left and the right. The Week is not all news. Visit the “Arts+Life,” “Photos,” and “Cartoons” sections for a collection of the best fun from the recent web.
When journalists post to Twitter, their tweets collect on Muck Rack. The site seems confusing at first because it shows all the news from everywhere. But it’s easy enough to filter by subject area (or news beat), source (Fox, Forbes, or the BBC), or trending topics. Be sure to read the Muck Rack blog that explains the best web sources for the breaking news of the moment. The blog also lists the hashtags that Twitter users employ to follow the big stories, e.g. #Libya or #Japan.
Professional journalists known as “curators” collect the news from across web: blogs, videos, and tweets on Storyful, which is based in Dublin. Every morning, its curators publish “Around the World in 18 Tweets,” a roundup of the most newsworthy Twitter entries of the previous day. Read the short thoughts of people at the scene of the action. Also, find the hashtags that can be used for finding more news on Twitter along with the names of influential commentators to follow. Think of Storyful as a Twitter companion for finding news.
Use the Web to Grow Richer, Smarter, Healthier, and Happier
Life Lived on the Edge of Pasadena
Use the Web to Grow Richer, Smarter, Healthier, and Happier
Thoughts on skiing, movies, politics, and the West
Use the Web to Grow Richer, Smarter, Healthier, and Happier
Use the Web to Grow Richer, Smarter, Healthier, and Happier
Use the Web to Grow Richer, Smarter, Healthier, and Happier
News and resources covering social media, search engines, databases, archives, and other such information collections. Since 1998.
The Internet Book of Life 