With so many free and fee-based options out there, how do you know which source to turn to? The answer is if possible, you use both. Always use a combination of web resources and traditional online services to get the maximum, most thorough results. If you are just looking for a quick piece of information, you can use the Web and find what you want. If you want to find great depths of information about a topic, you will need a combination of the free and fee-based tools to get it.
Another major benefit of using the traditional online services is the ability to search across multiple publications. They each have a standardized form, allowing you to pick and choose the resources you want to look at. All three of these resources also offer extensive Boolean and field searching, allowing you to pin down the specific information you are looking for. The Web has several strengths over commercial online services, including:
Traditional commercial database also have some strengths over the Web, including:
While news wire services have always been crucial information sources in newsrooms, they have become more influential as the Internet has expanded. The Internet's strength is its ability to accommodate immediacy of breaking news - which the news wires deliver. One example is the relaying of Federal Reserve Board announcements that influence the world markets. News wires are staples of online news services and key components of news filtering tools.
International news wires all operate differently and have varying standards of editorial quality, journalistic integrity, and credibility. The two dominant international wire services - The Associated Press and Reuters - are credible, reliable, journalistically-independent operations with thousands of bureaus worldwide. They cover everything from general interest to politics to business to crime for their local, national and international services. The AP is dominant in the U.S., but Reuters is more well-known around the world and has a much bigger online presence. AP is a cooperative organization available to member organizations only, while Reuters offers its menu of wire service products to any interested consumer.
National news wires represent their home countries but are largely unknown elsewhere. Examples include Notimex in Mexico, Xinhua of China, Jiji and Kyodo in Japan, and PA in England. Some are credible news organizations and others are publicity vehicles for their governments. Notimex, the Mexican news service, for example, is a reliable, largely credible news service covering issues related to Mexico, but it is funded by the Mexican government and its coverage must be regarded with reservations.
Specialty wires are geared to specific topics, like business, telecommunications or health care. Examples include Dow Jones and Bloomberg Business News, both of which offer businessfocused coverage that is journalistically strong and credible.
Corporate press release services like PR Newswire, Internet Wire, Business Wire, and U.S. Newswire are publicity machines for companies. They are not objective news tools, but rather, relayers of company press releases and corporate messages with no editorial or journalistic credibility. That said, they are still valuable for information that issuing companies want you to have - but you must not mistake them for unbiased sources.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Charlie W. Mysen at 09012010
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