Journalist's Toolbox Update: March 9, 2010

Twitter Resources: Find Twitter guides for journalists, backgrounds, URL shorteners and other tools on the Twitter Resources page.. We'll be updating this page often over the next few months. Feel free to suggest a site.

Medical/Health: County Health Rankings has image map to track how healthy your county or surrounding counties are. It's a very handy resource for anyone covering public health issues and trends.

Education: The Education Writer Association's EdMoney.org site tracks education spending across the country. It's full of data, sources and other helpful research. It's a must-bookmark for all education reporters.

Global Issues: Foreign Policy Blogs from the Foreign Policy Association is a great bookmark for anyone covering foreign affairs.

Copy Editing: Crash Blossoms: Headlines Gone Wrong is a great site that highlights awful headlines and implied meanings. A must-bookmark for copy editors and teachers.

Social Media Guidelines for Journalists: The Radio TV Digital News Association has released its Social Media Guidelines for journalists.

Terrorism Resources: Find helpful links in the 9-11 Terrorist Attacks, Public Safety-Airlines and Military-Terrorism sections.

Tsunami and Earthquake Resources: We have added several new resources to the Public Safety section. More updates will come throughout the day.

Multimedia Editing Tools: HongKiat.com, a mobile site, has assembled a list of more than 30 free multimedia editing tools. These are great tools for teaching, can be accessed off any computers browser and don't require a download like Audacity and many other free editors. We've found Aviary's Myna Audio Editor to be a great substitution for Audacity and Garage Band. Also, The Society for News Design has a great multimedia toolkit with many free resources.

Journalism Jobs: MediaJobPod.org is tailored to college students looking for multimedia jobs and internships. Watch imbedded videos from professionals on how to approach the job hunt, interview, write cover letters, etc. If you are interested in Web reporting/production or TV production, take advantage of the advice on this free site, developed by journalism instructors at Kent State University.

Photojournalism: PictoryMag is a cool online showcase for photography/slideshows. Find more resources on the Toolbox's Photojournalism page.

Weather Resources: Find winter weather resources in the Toolbox's Weather section.

Swine Flu: The Medical/Health section has several helpful resources, including the Nieman Foundation Guide to Covering Pandemic Flu, World Health Organization Disease Outbreak News Center, CDC Travel Notices Page, HealthMap Global Disease Alert Map and the Medical Symptoms Database Swine Flu Symptoms page.

Law and History: The Law Library of Congress has law guides, databases and historical documents back to 1774.

Travel Writing: You'll find dozens of helpful resources in the Toolbox's Lifestyle section, including the Society of American Travel Writers site.

State Government: Library of Congress: State Digital Resources Includes memory projects, online encyclopedias, history and cultural materials.

ZIP Codes: Use USNaviGuide.com to look up all of the ZIP codes for a specific area.

Public Records: Use the Federal Procurement Data System to search for government reports, contracts, databases, etc. The site requires a log-in.

Mashups and Databases: The Toolbox's Public Records section has links to dozens of databases and mashups. Some of those sites that have recently won awards or been cited in the news include: Statemaster, which provides U.S. statistics and state comparsions in an encyclopedia, census and other data mashup. This We Know and govpulse Federal Register offer U.S. government data about your community and are searchable by cities, ZIP codes, etc. Datamasher generates graphics and from data sets to give you a visual look inside the numbers.

Stock Markets: Use tools in the Business Resources section to track the daily changes in the markets.

Broadcasting: Find the correct pronunciations of newsmaker names at The Name Engine. Another great resource is the EarIt Demo, which allows you to roll over a name or word and get the correct pronunciation.

Journalism Jobs: Find job-hunting resources, organized by specific media and positions, in the Toolbox's Jobs section.

YouTube Reporters Center: The YouTube Reporters Center offers tips and advice targeted to citizen journalists, but the resources are helpful to student and professional journalists as well. The site launched with a great video from Politifact, the Pulitzer-winning site from the St. Petersburg Times. The video covered fact-checking basics for reporters and editors, with warnings about using Wikipedia.

Gas Prices: You can track gas prices with several Toolbox resources. Mapquest has a page to track gas prices in your area. Zillow.com gives estimates on individual home values. Use resources in the Toolbox's Business Resources section to track the housing market , gas prices, food costs and other economic issues. Related Resources: Personal Finance and Labor sections.

The Economy: BankTracker, from MSNBC and American University School of Communication, is a new site that reviews bank statements and tracks trends in the constantly changing banking industry. Kiplinger.com has posted a helpful image-map and database that helps you research how the stimulus package affects your state. It's great quick-reference for looking up what projects are scheduled to receive stimulus money. Also, Read the Stimulus offers tips on how to interpret the stimulus package. Related Resources: Economic Crisis section.

Military: Troopspace.net is a social networking forum geared toward U.S. troops, families and anyone looking for military connections. The site can be helpful for networking and finding personal/family-generated stories in your area. Ancestry.com: Military Records offers thousands of records, old newsreels, etc. You can search by war, era or follow a timeline of events to find the information.

Writing With Numbers: SensibleUnits.com converts measurements, distances, weights, etc. into objects to which a reader can relate. Weird Converter is great for analyzing numbers and coming up with odd facts and figures for stories. It's great for comparing sizes, weights and gives the reader some perspective. Find more resources in the Toolbox's Writing With Numbers section.

Covering People With Disabilities: You'll find hundreds of resources on the Disabilities page.

Free Speech/First Amendment: We've added several new resources to the Free Speech/First Amendment page.

Jobs: The Toolbox's Jobs section features dozens of journalism job databases and search resources. They're organized by news, sports, photography, PR, etc.

Just for Fun: Check out the Cool Sites page for funny, offbeat web tools. The Strange News archive shows that fact truly is stranger than fiction.
Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird blog also has offbeat news stories.

Teaching Tools: Many of you who use this site train your newsrooms and classrooms how to do online research: College Media, High School Journalism, Design, Broadcast Journalism, Ethics, Writing, Reporting Tools, Writing with Numbers, Photojournalism and Copy Editing.

Reporting Tools: Reporting Tools, Phone/E-Mail/Maps Directories, Search Engines, Expert Sources, Investigative, Form 990s, Public Records, Ethics, Check Domain Names, General Research and Writing With Numbers.

Editing and Fact-Checking Resources: The Toolbox's Copy Editing page has several new resources. The American Copy Editors Society has assembled a collection of 49 online quizzes about everything from AP Style and usage to Iraq and the Middle East. Related Resources: Copy Editing, General Research, History, Domain Sites and Writing With Numbers.

Writing with Statistics: Test your skills with IRE's interactive math quiz. After you've taken the test, click on the link at the bottom of the page to find out how to arrive at the correct answers. You'll find more resources like this one on the Writing with Numbers page. Related Resources: Spreadsheets, Business Resources, Personal Finance and Federal Government: Census Data.

Student Resources: College and high school students will find many helpful Toolbox resources for researching papers, reporting and more: Reporting Tools, Public Records, History, Ethics and Copy Editing.