Shopping

Christmas is coming sooner than we think. If you're like me, you'll want to get an early start. I like to do my shopping online from Amazon and a lovely Hawaiian store called Hilo Hattie's.

Who do you really work for?

With massive conglomerates, it is hard to tell what company you work this days. Who Owns What has incredible amounts of information on what conglomerates own what companies.

Looking for a Job

Searching for a job or an internship can be a terrifying, especially if you don't know where to look. One place to consider browsing for a job is JournalismJobs.com.

The Poynter Institute

The Poynter Institute has invaluable tools on its Web site, including information on diversity, ethics, design and much more. Al's Morning Meeting column offers story ideas that can be localized.

Daily Egyptian

The Daily Egyptian is the Southern Illinois University-Carbondale student-run newspaper. It is a quality newspaper putting out good stories. Check out my articles in the Pulse.

Obsession #1

I do a lot of work with entertainment, and it happens that I stumbled upon an Internet game called Hollywood Stock Exchange. Players buy and sell the stocks of actors and movies. It's helpful in determining what actors are doing what movies and how movies will do in the box office standings.

Obsession #2

There is nothing I hate more than being inappropriately dressed for the weather. In fact, the weather has become an obsession of mine. So I visit the Weather Channel site many times...a day.

Obsession #3

As the playoffs start to heat up, the St. Louis Cardinals' Web page should come in handy since they're going to win the World Series.

Not good at math?

Some of us aren't...well, a lot of us aren't, but this handy math helper does it for you.

International Phone Directory

Finding international phone numbers can be a bit of a challenge. Try this international phone directory.

CIA Factbooks

The CIA Factbooks have a lot of information on every country in the world. You never know when that might be valuable.

Census Information

Looking for census information for a specific state of county, try the U.S. Census Bureau Web site.

Unique ID

This is a site that can determine a lot of information simply based off IDs.

Great Journalism Resource

This is a great resource for research on the internet. It has a lot of different tools for many different types of research. Try the Journalist's Guide to the Internet.

News worthy

I like to go to many sources of news to stay updated. Here are a few of my favorites: the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times and CNN. For entertainment news, I like E! Online and Entertainment Weekly.

Movie Searches

Can't remember that actors name? Can't remember the name of the actor in "Casablanca?"
Try the Internet Movie Database!

Great research tools

This Web site contains many great tools for any journalist need to research or may be just get a story idea. Try the Journalist's Toolbox.

Helpful Search Tools

Google has a lot of helpful search tools.
Try the Google Advanced Search for specific searches.

Try the Google Advanced News Search for for specifc news.

Try the Google Advanced Image Search for the specific images and pictures.

Internet Assisted Reporting

NICAR 'Net Tour is a good Web site for all internet assisted research. It has a a database of listservs, source finders and federal and state government Web sites.

Another Phone Directory

Infospace is another helpful phone directory. If nothing else works, try this one.

Switchboard

Switchboard is an excellent phone number research tool. Cheaper than 4-1-1, it is easy to use and great at finding information, not only phone numbers, for sources.

Reverse directory

If you need to know who owns a telephone number, try the
Reverse Directory.