UK journalism blogger Paul Bradshaw offers some tips for busy reporters and editors on how to use some Web-based tools such as RSS feeds and social media to help them along the basic newsgathering process.

According to him, why go searching for news on the Web and Google when one can let that news come to you instead?

Among his tips:

- subscribe to RSS feeds for any online sources in your area of coverage: you'll get constantly updated feeds, from a multitude of sources, on a one-stop page.
- Technorati, the blog search engine, gives the possibility of subscribing to feeds organized by tag: an easy way for a motoring journalist to keep up to date with the blogosphere's coverage of 'Ford', 'V8s' and more.
- Twitter offers features including Twitterlocal and Tweetscan, which enable users to subscribe to feeds based on location and keywords, allowing journalists to set up feeds in advance for scheduled events.
- Subscribe to bookmarking sites such as Delicious and the like: "Bookmarking sites like Delicious are a goldmine of information and leads," says Bradshaw.
- Use social networks and their feeds: "Journalism is all about contacts. Social networks are a fantastic way of finding and managing them," writes Bradshaw.
- Sign up for some Google alerts: in addition to automatically providing items that may have gone unnoticed, Google always displays 'similar' results.

While journalists should by all means learn how to take advantage of these easy-to-use Web resources, they shouldn't do so at the expense of traditional reflexes: getting directly in touch with sources and verifying the accuracy of content on their own.

Source: journalism.co.uk through IFRA Executive News Service