More than 2,000 federal, state and local Web sites are available for information. Private organizations also are on the Internet and can provide useful material. Here is a list of some basic sources. This list comes from News Reporting and Writing by Melvin Mencher, 9th edition.
Journalism
American Journalism Review: http://newslink.org
Links to 18,000 media outlets, job listings, research.
Committee of Concerned Journalists: www.journalism.org
CCJ and its sister organization, Project for Excellence in Journalism, audit press performance.
Investigative Reporters and Editors: www.ire.org
National Conference of Editorial Writers: www.ncew.org
National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting: www.ire.org/resources/nicar
Newslab: www.newslab.org
Coverage of television news.
Online News Association: http://www.journalists.org.
Makes annual awards for "excellence in Internet journalism" Winning entries are updated annually: www.journalists.org/Programs/Awards.htm
Poynter Institute for Media Studies: www.poynter.org
Wide range of materials, including Romenesko's Medianews available at www.poynter.org/medianews.
Public Relations Newswire: www.prnewswire.com
Pulitzer Prizes: http://pulitzer.org
Pulitzer Prize winners since 1920; history of prizes and entry forms. Full texts of winners since 1995.
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: www.rcfp.org
Student Press Law Center: www.splc.org
Provides information on high school and college press issues, primarily free press materials.
General Information-Background
Foundation for American Communication: www.facsnet.org
A source for quick access to documents backgrounding current issues and for names of sources.
Library of Congress: www.loc.gov
National Archives: www.nara.gov
New York Public Library www.nypl.org
ProfNet: www.profnet.com
Frequently used by journalists for background. A collaboration of more than 4,000 public information officers linked by the Internet. Half are at colleges and universities and others are think tanks, laboratories and various associations. Queries are sent to members three times a day for reply at no charge. You can specify that you do or do not want replies from public relations firms.
Sources by Subject
Aircraft
Federal Aviation Administration: www.faa.gov
Business
Better Business Bureau: www.bbb.org
Edgar Database: www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Information about companies from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hoover's Master List Plus Database: www.hoovers.com
Information on more than 9,300 companies.
Censorship
American Civil Liberties Union: www.aclu.org
American Library Association: www.ala.org
Freedom Forum First Amendment Center: www.freedomforum.org
National Coalition Against Censorship: www.ncac.org
People for the American Way: www.pfaw.org
School and library censorship, attacks on gay rights, sex education, separation of church and state.
Civil Rights
American Civil Liberties Union: www.aclu.org
Anti-Defamation League: www.adl.org
Student Press Law Center: www.splc.org
Crime-Law Enforcement
Bureau of Justice Statistics: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Also, statistics on crime available at www.albany.edu/sourcebook.
Federal Bureau of Investigation: www.fbi.gov
FBI's Uniform Crime Reports: www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.html
This site also includes a Fugitive Alert Service and the Most Wanted.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data: www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/home.html
National Criminal Justice Reference Service: www.ncjrs.org
Security on Campus: http://ope.ed.gov/security
The Office of Post-Secondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education has data on crimes on 6,000 campuses. Also, Security on Campus, Inc., has disciplinary and crime records, www.campussafety.org
Education
Academe Today: http://chronicle.com
This is the website of the weekly Chronicle of Higher Education and is available to Chronicle subscribers. Education reporters find the site indispensable.
National Education Association: www.nea.org
Elections-Politics
Center for Responsive Politics: www.opensecrets.org
Examines campaign finances, election results.
Common Cause: www.commoncause.org
Nonpartisan organization dedicated to "fair and ethical functioning of our government."
Democratic National Committee: www.democrats.org
Federal Election Commission Reports: www.tray.com
GOP Online: www.gop.org
National Committee for an Effective Congress: www.NCEC.org
Makes detailed studies of voting behavior. Active on behalf of Democratic candidates.
Project Vote Smart: http://vote-smart.org
Source of information on candidates and issues.
Public Campaign: http://publicampaign.org/
Studies the role of money in politics.
Environment
Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov
Databases, laws and regulations. Contains information on local air quality.
National Audubon Society: www.audubon.org
National Resources Defense Council: www.nrdc.org
Scorecard: http://scorecard.org
Information service provided by Environmental Defense. Includes localized information about air pollution and other environmental problems.
Society of Environmental Journalists: www.sej.org
Government
For general information about the federal government: www.fedworld.gov
For statistics from more than 100 federal agencies: www.fedstats.gov
Bureau of the Census: www.census.gov
Bureau of Labor Statistics: www.bls.gov
Monthly updates of employment, wages, unemployment regionally.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics: www.bts.gov
Central Intelligence Agency: www.cia.gov
Commission on Civil Rights: www.usccr.gov
Department of Agriculture: www.usda.gov
Department of Education: www.ed.gov
Federal Communications Commission: www.fcc.gov
General Accounting Office: www.gao.gov
House of Representatives: www.house.gov
National Center for Health Statistics: www.cdc.gov/nchs
Data from the centers for Disease Control on aids, infant mortality, STD, teen births, etc.
Securities & Exchange Commission: www.sec.gov
Social Security Administration: www.ssa.gov
U. S. Postal Service: www.usps.gov
White House: www.whitehouse.gov
Note: Many cities and states maintain Web sites, and there are scores of other federal sites. Those listed here are sites most often consulted by journalists.
Guns
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: www.bradycampaign.org
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence: www.handguncontrol.org
National Rifle Association: www.nra.org
Health
Centers for Disease Control: www.cdc.gov
Healthfinder: www.healthfinder.gov
Information on disease prevention, treatment and research.
National Center for Health Statistics: www.cdc.gov/nchs
World Health Organization: www.who.int
Medicine
Journal of the American Medical Association: www.ama.ssn.org
Religion
American Baptist Church: www.abc-em.org
Buddhanet: www.buddhanet.net
Encyclopedia of Hinduism: www.eh.sc.edu
Evangelical Lutheran Church: www.thelutheran.org
Interfaith Alliance: www.tialliance.org
Jewish Community Network: www.jewish.com
Institute of Islamic Information and Education: www.iiie.net
Roman Catholic Church: www.vatican.va
Southern Baptist Convention: www.sbc.net
Sports
CBS: www.sportsline.com
ESPN: www.espn.com
Fox: www.foxsports.com
National Basketball Association: www.nba.com
National Collegiate Athletic Association: www.ncaa.org
The Sporting News: www.sportingnews.com
Transportation
American Trucking Association: www.trucking.org
Association of American Railroads: www.aar.org
Department of Transportation: www.dot.gov
Provides links to many databases. For state and local statistics, use the Bureau of Transportation Statistics: www.bts.gov
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: www.hwysafety.org
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD): www.madd.org
National Traffic Safety Board: www.ntsb.gov
Statistics and press briefings on particular accidents.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: www.nhtsa.dot.gov
Motor vehicle recalls, consumer complaints, defect investigations, new-car crash test results, crash statistics.
Women
Feminist Majority Foundation: www.feminist.org
Said to be political hub of the women’s movement.
National Organization for Women: www.now.org
Note: Links sometimes shut down or change. If you cannot connect to a listed source here, use an index site such as Yahoo! or a search engine. You can find the correct link by using the keyword(s) in the listed title(s).
Search Sites on the World Wide Web
The three top search engines for journalists are Google (www.google.com) AltaVista (www.altavista.com) and HotBot (www.hotbot.com). The most popular Web portal, Yahoo!, uses AltaVista as its search engine. Google searches 1.5 billion Web pages.