Web+Research+11



=**Web Research 11: Searching for News and Keeping Up to Date Using RSS**=


 * Aim:**

What is RSS and how can we keep up to date with news?


 * Common Core State Standards:**


 * CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.7** Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.


 * CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.8** Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.


 * Objectives:**

Students will learn how to search for news and keep up to date using RSS.


 * Vocabulary:**


 * blog
 * blogroll
 * microblog
 * news aggregator
 * RSS
 * syndication
 * XML (Extensible Markup Language)


 * Introduction:**

The nature of the Web makes it a perfect medium for news.

With the ability to update content throughout the day, to include color images, video, and audio clips; and for readers to easily write comments in reaction to stories, news on the Web is engaging, lively, and interactive.

In the not-so-distant past, daily newspapers came only in paper form once or twice a day.

Now most newspapers have online versions that are updated around the clock.

This is also true about magazines.

//Time// and //Newsweek// may be available weekly on the newsstand, but the content changes daily on their Web sites.

There are also e-zines, Web-based magazines that do not have print counterparts.

Some news services include text transcripts of television and radio shows, as well as video and audio transcripts.

In addition to major news organizations, thousands of individuals and institutions publish Web logs, or **blogs**, that can be updated several times a day.

Many news services, magazines, professional reporters, and citizen reporters also update the news throughout the day and night using micro-blogs, such as Twitter.

How do you avoid being overwhelmed trying to keep up with news coverage?

Staying current with news stories that interest you has been made easier by technology that provides tracking of news stories or news alerts. **RSS* or Really Simple Syndication, amkes it possible to have headlines from sources that you subscribe to brought to your own personal new aggregator.**

Discussion:

Searching for News


 * Before you start searching for news on a particular topic, it helps to think about what the nature of that news is.**


 * Is it an international story that is being covered on major news television channels and will be covered on the front page of major newspapers?**


 * Or is it a local story that will likely be of limited interest: for example, to a small community, city, state, or region?**


 * Another very important issues is the period of time in which the story took place.**


 * If it is a current major story from today to 30 days ago, you will most like find what you need by using one of the major search engines' news services.**


 * If it took place before that, you'll need to search individual online newspapers' archives.**

Search Engine News Sites**

General search engines' home pages aren't the best place to start when searching for news, especially recent news, because their databases get update too infrequently.

Most of the major search engines have developed their own separate news search tools.

These are primarily used for big news and fast-breaking stories that have national and international interest.

The better known ones are these:


 * Google News at http://news.google.com
 * Yahoo! News at http://news.yahoo.com


 * Newspaper Directories**

If you are looking for information of a local nature - for example, stories from a small town newspaper - you can go to directories that list newspaper all across the United States and around the world.

The following directories have links to thousands of newspapers:


 * Kidon Media-Link at http://www.kidon.com/media-link/index.php
 * NewsLink at http://newslink.org
 * NewsVoyager at http://www.newspaperlinks.com/voyager.cfm
 * Onlinenewspapers.com at http://www.onlnenewspapers.com


 * News Archives**

Several newspapers provide archives of their stories on their Web sites, but they often require a fee to obtain the articles.

For example, //The New York Times// allows free access to articles back to 1987 but if you want to search its archives back to 1922, you will have to pay for access.

Before 1922 articles are free because they are in the public domain.

Here is a list of some news archives:


 * Documents in the News - Current Events Research at http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/docnews.html
 * Google News Archives at http://news.google.com/archivesearch
 * New York Times Article Archive at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html
 * NewsLibrary at http://www.newslibrary.com/nlsite/
 * U.S. News Archives on the Web at http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/internet/archives.html


 * Blogs, Microblogs, and E-zines**

A blog is a frequently updated Web page that contains links to resources, personal commentaries, and opinions.

In the mid-1990s, when blogs first made their appearance on the Web, there were maybe a few dozen in existence.

According to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008 at http://www.technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere, there are over 133 million blogs.

In 2004, the number was around 4.3 million.

One of the reasons why blogs have become so popular is the simplicity of publishing them.

There is no need for the author to know HTML, and there are free blog automated publishing tools, such as Blogger that make it easy for anyone to create a blog.

Blogs are often defined as personal online journals, operated by individuals who compile list of links and comment on these links to provide information that interests them, with new links on the top of the page, and older ones at the bottom.

Recently, however, blogging culture has grown to include political campaigns, institutions such as libraries and museums, and virtually any entity that wants to create a community of interest around particular topics.

Blogs are also a good way to uncover news that the regular media cannot or will not cover.

It is important to keep in mind that because virtually anyone can publish a blog, you must evaluate the information the blogger has provided.

Make sure you can verify the author's credentials before relying on the information that he or she has published.


 * What Makes a Blog Unique from a Web Site?


 * Blogs tend to be more dynamic than Web sites - it is expected that a blog will be updated each day and perhaps several times a day.
 * Blog entries may be added from any browser that's connected to the Internet.
 * Each entry is time- and date-stamped automatically by the blogging software
 * Blog entries are automatically archived
 * Readers may comment on individual blog entries


 * How to Find Topic Blogs**

To find blogs on a particular topic, there are a few good directories to try:


 * Best of the Web: Blogs at http://blogs.botw.org
 * Blog Catalog at http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory
 * FindBlogs. com at http://findblogs.com
 * Technorati's Blog Directory at http://technorati.com/blogs/directory

In addition, general directories, such as Yahoo!'s Directory or the Open Directory Project, are good places to search for blogs on particular topics.

You can also search a social bookmarking site such as Delicious for blogs on a particular topic.

Simply explore Delicious tags for the term //blog// with your topic of interest.


 * Searching the Content of Blogs**

Search engines, including Google and Yahoo!, integrate blog content in their search results.

Ways to limit results to only blogs in both Google and Yahoo! are shown here:


 * Google: Enter search terms followed by ~blog inurl:archives. For example, **"global warming" ~blog inurl:archives**
 * Yahoo!: Add **blog inurl:archives** to your search keywords. For example, **"global warming" blog inurl:archives**

There are specialized blog search engines that allow you to search the content of blogs:


 * Google Blog Search at http://blogsearch.google.com
 * Technorati at http://www.technorati.com
 * Bloglines at http://www.bloglines.com


 * Microblogs**

A **microblog** is a site that creates a network of users who write short updates on just about anything they want to write about.

These updates are limited in size, usually around 140 characters.

The most popular microblogging service is Twitter.

When you sign up for a Twitter account, you are not only able to contribute your own content to the service, but you are able to "follow" others that you want to keep in touch with.

People in a few countries, including the United States, can set Twitter up so that they are able to receive and send updates, or "tweets" via their cell phones.

This capability means Twitter can be an amazingly powerful news source, especially for news that is fresh and not reported in traditional news sources yet.

If a person has a Web-enabled phone, he or she can post tweets about a news event immediately, and possibly take a picture of what's happening with their cell phone camera.

The person on the street, or "citizen journalist" can be a powerful source of information.

In addition to individuals, many news services and other organizations have Twitter feeds that you can follow.

Even if you have no desire to sign up for Twitter, you can use Twitter as a source of news by searching its content.

Searching Twitter feeds is straightforward.

Simply go to http://search.twitter.com and search for the news you are interested in.


 * News Tracking and Alerts**

Tracking news stories can be done by continually searching in a news database for information on a particular story you're following.

This can be time-consuming, and you can never be sure if you're finding everything that is available.

News alerts are requests made to the database using keywords that describe the subject.

When a new story is published on the issue, the search tool will email you the link to the article(s) immediately.

Google has a very effective alert program, available for the entire Web, or just for blogs, news, video, or groups.

News alerts can help you because you can avoid wasting tie searching for and keeping up with news on a topic - the search tool does it for you.

The following section covers news aggregators and RSS technology, which is another way to keep up with the news.


 * RSS and News Aggregation**

You can set up news alerts, arrange for email updates from online newsletters and e-zines, or save frequently used blogs and news Web sites to your favorites list; but if you want to monitor several sites on a regular basis, it makes sense to use news readers or aggregators.

These use RSS technology.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, or RDF Site Summary or Rich Site Summary.

Really Simple Syndication seems to be the term most people use to describe it.

RSS is an **XML**-based format for distributing and aggregating Web content.


 * Syndication** in this media can be described very much like syndication in the newspaper or radio business.

A columnist may be syndicated, which means that his or her material is distributed to newspapers all over the world: for example, Garrison Keillor's articles, or opinion pieces by Thomas Friedman.

RSS allows someone to distribute content on a large scale.

A small newspaper or newsletter, with sought-after content, can compete with bigger news sources.


 * RSS REaders/Aggregators**

RSS readers, or aggregators, are software packages that allow you to receive, within one page, news sources that you choose, including blogs and newspapers such as //The New York Times//, broadcast news, and so forth.

Headlines are updated regularly throughout the day, and if you want to read the entire article, you can easily click on the headline to go to it.

It is important to note that not all news sources are RSS-enabled.

If the source is available via a newsreader, the source will usually clearly indicate this by using an icon on its main page labeled **XML** or **RSS**.

RSS readers or **news aggregators** may be Web-based services that are free and accessible from any computer that is connected to the Internet.

If you choose a Web-based service, you may set up an account for free and be assigned a user name and password to protect your privacy.

There are also aggregators that require software that you may download to your computer - some of these packages are free and others are fee-based.


 * Finding News Readers**

The following resources provide links to several news readers that are either Web-based or available for downloading to your computer.

These services list dozens of RSS readers, both free and fee-based, Web-based, and downloadable.


 * RSS Specifications at http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-readers.htm
 * News on Feeds: Web-based Aggregators at http://www.newsonfeeds.com/faq/aggregators

Popular free Web-based RSS readers are:


 * Bloglines at http://www.bloglines.com
 * MyYahoo! at http://my.yahoo.com/s/about/rss/index.html


 * Finding RSS Feeds**

These databases collect RSS-enabled news sources.

Search these to find resources to add to your reader.

You can search for feeds in the RSS reader you are using.


 * Bloglines at http://www.bloglines.com
 * NewsIsFree at http://www.newsisfree.com

In addition to providing a free Web-based newsreader, NewsIsFree updates its more than 32,00 new sources every 15 minutes.

It lists RSS feeds, or channels, by topic and by headline.


 * In-Class Activity:**


 * Activity 1:**

1. Go to Twitter at @http://search.twitter.com

2. In the search box, search a topic of your choice.


 * Activity 2:**

1. Let's say you want to track news developments on a topic such as the development of a vaccine for the H1N1 virus, or "swine flu".

2. Go to Google Alerts at @http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en

3. Click on the **Type:** drop-down box, select **News**

4. In the search box next to **Search terms:** type keywords that describe a topic you want to track, such as **"H1N1 vaccine."**

5. In the box next to **How often**:, ; choose **as-it-happens**.

6. In the **email length:** box, select **up to 10 results**. This will prevent an overwhelming number of alerts coming in all at once.

7. Verify your email address in the box titles **Deliver to:**. If you are not registered and signed in with Google, this box will be labeled Your Email:. and you will enter your email address here.

8. Click on **Create Alert**.

The news alert will be initiated after you click on the link that is sent to you in a verification email message.

The news alert will remain in effect until you cancel it.


 * Homework:**

1. Suppose you are looking for news articles about the use of video games in education.

a. Go to Google News at http://news.google.com and look for that subject. What search expression did you use? How many results did you find? Give the titles of the first three articles. b. Now go to Yahoo! News at http://news.yahoo.com and try the same search. Again, how did you formulate your search expression? How many results did you find here? Give the titles of the first three articles. c. Which news searching site did you prefer? Why?

2. Go to the Open Directory Project at http://dmoz.org and type **blogs** in the search form.

a. Search for blogs on typewriters and see what you find. How many different categories were listed? How many sites were found? b. Choose one of the results and click on it. Describe what you find at the site.

3. No go back to the main page of the Open Directory Project at http://dmoz.org and again type **blogs** into the search form.

a. Choose a topic you are interested in and search for it. Again, tell how many categories are found. How many sites? b. Choose two blogs from the list and describe what you find at each of them.

4. Search on Google Blog Search for content contained in blogs on a topic. Travel is something that is often described in blogs. Try looking for information about travel in the country of Belize that is contained in a blog. Go to http://blogsearch.google.com to get started.

a. How many results do you find? b. Go to three of the results, give the URLs, and describe what you find at each site.

5. Now let's try setting a news alert at Yahoo! Go to http://news.yahoo.com and click on **NewsAlerts** at the very bottom of the page.

a. Set a news alert for computer viruses. Choose the option for **As they happen**. How many alerts did you receive in two days? b. Go to Google Alerts at http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en and set a news alert for a topic of your choice. Choose **as-it-happens**. What topic did you choose? How many alerts did you receive in two days? c. Remember to fo in and cancel your alerts if you want to.

6. Go to the RSS section at http://news.yahoo.com. Click on the orange RSS icon next to **Technology**. Following the instructions we learned, add the feed to your reader. Check to make sure the feed is added. Now go to this new link listed on the left side of your page and describe what news is listed.


 * Summary:**

The Web, for many people, has become the preferred medium for accessing news.

With content updated throughout the day, the Web provides on-demand coverage of current stories and archives of those from the past.

Television networks, radio stations, newspapers, and magazines provide content updates along with audio and video clips.

Searching for news has been facilitated by specialized news databases that are provided by major search engines such as Google and Yahoo!

Several resources list newspaper and television and radio programs by locality in order to find local stories.

In addition to major network news, individuals and institutions publish news via blogs, Web pages that are frequently updated and focus on narrow audiences.

There are also microblogging services, such as Twitter, that allow you to find news as it is happening on a myriad of subjects.

With hundreds of thousands of news sources available, it becomes difficult to track new developments without continually checking each resource throughout the day or week.

With the advent of XML (extensible markup language) technology, Web information can now be syndicated using RSS, or Really Simple Syndication.

RSS makes it possible for you to set up a personal news aggregator, retrieving news feed automatically to your desktop.

In order to receive these feeds, or channels, you must have a newsreader configured.

Newsreaders many be Web-based or downloaded to your computer.

They may be free or require a fee.

The major advantages of using RSS include the fact that you have control over which RSS feeds or channels you'd like to read, the news reader gives you a headline and description making it easy for you to scan the topics and decide which articles you'd like to read, and the hyperlinks provided will take you directly to the article you want.


 * Summary Activity:**


 * Source:**

Hartman, K. and Ackerman, E. (2010). //Searching and researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web//. Sherwood, OR: Franklin, Beedle & Associates.