net.TUTOR: News Sources

2. News Sources: Read Breaking News

Use Web News Services

Web news services are provided by some of the popular Web search tools. These services are updated every 10-15 minutes to stay on top of breaking stories.

Web news services get much of their news from the large press services, such as Associated Press (AP) or Reuters, which also report current news stories for print and broadcast media. Some examples of Web news services are:

Google News
Search for a news topic or browse stories from 4,500 news sources.
Yahoo! News
Provides stories from approximately 70 online newspapers, press services, and television news providers.

Use Broadcast News Sites

Broadcast news organizations, such as Cable News Network (CNN), MSNBC, ABC and other television and radio networks, also offer very current stories on their Web sites. Some of their stories come from the press services (AP, Reuters), while others are provided by their own reporters.

These sites also offer optional audio or video stories for those with a speedy Internet connection. Some examples are:

ABC News
BBC (for news with a British slant)
CNN (also provides personalized options)
NPR News (includes audio from radio broadcasts)

Use Blogs

Blogs (short for Weblogs) are also good sources for breaking news as well as commentary on these stories. "Despite the many purely personal-focused blogs and opinionated pontificating of others, Weblogs offer access to breaking news, rumors, evaluations, and other information that might not otherwise be readily available from our traditional databases." (From: Notess, "The Blog Realm")

This writer provides examples of 18 Different Kinds of Blog Posts, ranging from breaking news and opinion to humorous, how-to's, ideas, inspiration, and scholarly.

You can use specialized search engines to locate and bookmark any blogs that interest you and also to search the content of blog postings. For example:

You can also use a Web service called an aggregator to locate useful blogs and read them all from one site. For example:

Citizen Journalism: Report Breaking News

A growing number of sites that cater to those who want to report breaking news, submit photos and videos. Some examples include:

Activity

How well do you keep up with the news? You can take a weekly news quiz from the New York Times to test your knowledge.

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