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August 28, 2018

New tools for journalists

Modern journalists have access to such tools that their predecessors could not imagine even ten years ago.

The list of tools has long been not limited to traditional handles, pencil sharpeners or a spare set of batteries for a dictaphone. Instead, web tools are increasingly gaining weight: organized arrays of resources and data collected for various journalists’ needs. However, journalists are often unaware of the existence of many tools or do not know where to look for them.

The new project of the European Journalism Center is worth paying attention to, at least, the emphasis on the coverage of natural disasters, which, although occurring at all times, usually cause journalists to panic because of their unpredictability.

Emergency Journalism is a new, well thought-out set of tools for more complete and accurate coverage of events in difficult environments. The website offers a variety of resources for journalists that cover such difficult topics as natural disasters or political conflicts or work directly under such difficult conditions. In particular, the website includes applications and platforms that use new digital technologies to enhance the coverage of complex topics and situations. Particularly interesting is the section devoted to the search for new ways to illuminate forest fires, which traditionally requires significant physical and emotional effort, as well as the constant verification of very changing data from the scene.

Recently, the number of specialized websites aimed at helping reporters is growing at a steep pace. There are websites that contain tips on how to optimize search on the web, how to find people who would not want to be found, how to access government documents, and more. On other sites, you can find explanations for digital copywriting, topographic maps and charts, interpretation of statistics, features of tragedy coverage and traumatic events – the list continues to expand, like everything else on the Internet.

Someone once said (and if you believe the Internet, it was Mitch Kapor from the Electronic Frontier Foundation) that “getting information from the Internet is like drinking a fire hydrant”. Although the comparison remains fair, it looks like there are new ways to streamline a huge flow of information.

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