Tools to help journalists find eyewitnesses during breaking news, find sources for stories, curate social media and conduct crowdsourcing projects with readers.

1. Compiled
by
Mandy
Jenkins,
9/2013
zombiejournalism.com
Tap Into the Crowd Resource List
Content Search Tools
twXplorer: Enter search terms to see the last 500 tweets, filter/drill down into related
terms, hashtags and links. twxplorer.knightlab.com/
Topsy: Search older tweets and photos. topsy.com/advanced-search
Twazzup: Real-time keyword search, displayed in a visual format twazzup.com
Social Buzz: Searches Twitter, Facebook and Google+, order by popularity
social-searcher.com/social-buzz/
AllMyTweets: See all of a user’s tweets on one page. AllMyTweets.net
Social Mention: Real-time keyword search across many social networks, plus ability to
save searches to Excel. Socialmention.com
Search.Stagram: Search Instagram photos and videos by keyword.
search.stagram.com
Facebook Status Search: Search public status updates. Openstatussearch.com
Twitter People Searches
Twiangulate.com: Search for Twitter users by biography, keyword and their
connections to others.
Twellow.com: Search for Twitter users by location and industry/keyword.
Muckrack.com: Search for social media accounts and contact for other journalists.
Source Search Tools
Facebook OpenGraph Searches: Top search box on facebook.com, dig in upon
results to search by education, employer, location and more.
LinkedIn
Search for people, filter by location, profession, etc.: linkedin.com/search?trk=advsrch
Search for skills: linkedin.com/skills/

2. Compiled
by
Mandy
Jenkins,
9/2013
zombiejournalism.com
Search and follow companies: linkedin.com/companies?trk=hb_tab_compy
Quora: Ask questions and find related experts quora.com
Source Background Tools
Foller Me: Insights on all public Twitter accounts Foller.Me
Hachi: Search for connections across LinkedIn, Facebook and Gmail gohachi.com
Find their other social networks: Use Identify (Firefox) or Falcon (Chrome) in your
browser to see a social user’s other accounts Browser extensions
Rapportive: Discover social networks of those who email you in Gmail Chrome
Extension
Location Searches
Ban.jo: Mobile app that shows public tweets, Foursquare check-ins and Facebook
check-ins on a map. Can be used online at app.ban.jo
Geofeedia: Premium geolocation search tool. Can search down to the building, seeing
located tweets and images. $ Geofeedia.com
Mappeo: Search YouTube videos by their location. Mappeo.net
Foursquare: Though the mobile app version is used by those who play this check-in
game, you can search for venues and “mayors” (those who have been to a location the
most times) on the website with an account login. Foursquare.com
Crowdsourcing Tools
Google Docs: Create public forms, surveys and other shareable documents
Docs.google.com
MapaList: Create an automatic map from a Google spreadsheet and form
Mapalist.com
Crowdmap: Create a mobile-friendly reader-assisted map crowdmap.com
Tumblr: Simple blog interface allows for user submissions Tumblr.com

3. Compiled
by
Mandy
Jenkins,
9/2013
zombiejournalism.com
Curation Tools
Diigo: Save links of any sort to access from anywhere, anytime. Install the Diigo plugin
on your browser to take full advantage of its ease. Diigo.com
Storify: Compile tweets, YouTube videos, links, social photos, text and more into
stories you can embed on your website. Be sure to install the Storify plugin for Chrome
or Firefox to make it easier to add items. Storify.com
Timeline: Arrange text, images, videos, tweets and more into an embeddable timeline
out of Google Spreadsheets. Timeline.vertite.co/#embed
RebelMouse: Create always-updating, embeddable section fronts around topics or
events using social accounts, social searches and other feeds. Rebelmouse.com
NewHive: Build visually compelling collections of related media for an embeddable and
original alternative to a boring story package. Newhive.com
Photo Verification Tools
EXIF viewer: This tool lets you view the available Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) data
on any image via an uploaded file from your desktop or a URL from the web. This may
include the camera/scanner used, date taken and settings. regex.info/exif.cgi
Reverse Image Search: This online tool allows you to see where else a particular
image is in use across the web. This is handy for seeing if your image is being used
without permission, as well as finding hoax photos used previously. tineye.com
Error Level Analysis: See how/if an image has been Photoshopped. If part of an
image’s scan stands out or looks lighter than the rest, the image may have been edited.
Be sure to use the highest quality image you can find. fotoforensics.com