A Beginner's Guide to the Web

Posted on July 2, 1995

Okay, first the phobia.

You've heard about the Internet, seen your colleagues use it, even tried it once or twice yourself. But it seems so intimidating, so complicated. (especially if you're still at the stage where programming your VCR is a technical challenge!)

Well, relax. The bad news is the Internet IS vast and complicated. The good news is that it IS easy to quickly master how to use it. The learning curve for using the Net is steep, but you can climb that curve faster than it took you to learn WordPerfect or any other word processing program.

But you better get on the learning curve fast. Because the Internet will become as central to journalism as the phone.

Because there is gold in them thar' Internet hills. You want to know what your local MP said today about a controversial issue in the House of Commons -- Hansard is on line. A local company has been sued in a prominent case a few years ago -- check the Supreme Court's database for all of the top court's decisions.

Next, the hype. The Internet is not like the computer on Star Trek. You can't just say: "Computer, who are the ten biggest crooks that donated money to the sleezebag politician in my city?" and wait a few seconds for the answer.

The Internet will not make stupid reporters smart. But it will make smart reporters smarter.

The Internet is a vast, largely unorganized, ever-changing library (in fact, many of the world's best libraries are actually on the Internet).

And -- like any library -- you have to do the hard work to find the nugget of information you want. The books don't walk off the shelves into your hands.

Now the help: Let's assume you're plugged in and you already know how to use Netscape or whatever browser you're surfing with. Here is a basic beginners' guide. (Contact me at my e-mail address below for any questions.)

Start with a good home page

You want to program your computer to start at the most helpful place every time you go online, with links to best journalistic spots. Many Net providers will program your computer to start on their page .. which may or may not be useful for you.

You can change that to my home page --"Investigative Journalism on the Net" -- or to the excellent pages of several other Canadian journalists or to popular Web sites like YAHOO.

The point is, this is where you'll start everytime you connect to the Net, so make it some place you find easy and useful.

How to search for information:

Search engines are a journalist's best friend on the Net. They are fill-in-the-blanks search tools that help you find what you want ... sometimes. Think of search engines as the helpful librarian who points you to the right section ... Each librarian might give you a somewhat different tip.

Be as specific as possible. Let's say a local polluting factory is spewing toxic waste into the community. Don't ask for "pollution", that's too broad, you'll get too much ... but "arsenic" or "PCB" is better.

There are dozens of search engines, (many listed on my page) but my favourite include: Digital`s Alta Vista One of the easiest and fastest Open Text A Canadian product that is fast and efficient. It also has an optional, more advanced search function that allows you, for example, to ask for "PCBs" and "children". Champlain Explorer Designed to search Canadian government databases.

How to search for people:

Once you have some facts, you might want to find people to talk to -- experts and ordinary folks concerned about the issue in your story.

For experts, you can e-mail PROFNET at profnet@profnet.com or MEDIANET ( at 71344.2761@ compuserve.com) and they will send your request out to universities and other institutions for the kind of expert you want. (You can even make your request anonymous.)

Say you also want ordinary, but informed people ... activists or concerned citizens. There are thousands upon thousands of discussion groups on the Net. Think of them as coffee shops or bars where people chat by e-mail... DejaNews is marvelous tool that will find the groups you want. You simply type in the keyword you're looking for and up comes a list of the latest messages sent by various people to different discussion groups. Click on the message title to read it. You can also click on the person's name to find out more about them (how often and where they post messages -- a good way to judge their credibility or usefulness).

Finding people can lead you to more facts. Recently, for example, I was doing some research on human rights in Guatemala. Punching in "Guatemala labour" into DejaNews got me a long list of items and I noticed many were sent by one activist. I e-mailed him with a specific request for more details; he sent me the most recent news files, and the names of two listservs. What are listservs, you ask?

Listservs: Helpful mailing lists

Listservs are one of the most under-rated -- but most useful tools -- for journalists on the Net.

They are mailing lists that bring together people interested in a common topic. This could be experts -- for example, medical specialists interested in a certain branch of AIDS research -- or ordinary folks. You subscribe to them by e-mail(free of charge).

I found two listservs (CENTAM-L for Central America and ACTIV-L for Activists) that had daily news bulletins about events in Guatemala. I subscribe to them for the duration of my research, then simply log off.

I stay permanently subscribed to several journalism listservs and highly recommend you do the same. These are discussion groups by, for and of journalists -- most of them much more experienced than you on the Net and therefore a great resource.

Journalism listservs will do 3 things for you:

-Keep you informed of new Web sites and Internet stuff that other journalists have found.

-Put you in touch with other colleagues around the world for everything from gossip, serious debate about ethics or job opportunities

-Help you with your story. For example, I recently posted a request for help on how to search corporate records in Ohio and how to find a Japanese crime expert ... and got dozens of answers within hours.

The best (and busiest) listserv is CARR-L, an American-based list devoted to Computer-Assisted Reporting.

A necessary Canadian journalism list is CANCAR-L, run by dean Tudor of Ryerson.

There are other listservs -- and an explanation of how to join them --on my home page.

The Internet is making journalism much more cooperative, much more a team effort as journalists instantly communicate with each other and share their information.