ABSTRACT
As a reporter, you may have a hunch about a story, but you need data to back up your assumption. Where do you begin? This chapter addresses what to do when the data you want is not readily available: How to request data from government agencies in the US and other countries and how to create your own datasets. It also covers how to search the web for data using Google tools, including its advanced search interface and other techniques. This chapter also explains how to find academic studies (through Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic), how to find sources via the web (with services such as https://ExpertiseFinder.com" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ExpertiseFinder.com and Help a Reporter Out) and how to evaluate the information you find online. We then shift to how to find data specifically – using data portals (like Eurostat, Our World in Data and https://Data.gov" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Data.gov), Google’s regular search engine and Google Dataset Search. The chapter includes a brief explanation of file form1ats because that knowledge can be crucial to search syntax and discusses Google Alerts and search engines other than Google.
