Background info

What does the web know about you?

1. Let's start with Pipl, a website that allows you to track people, e-mail addresses, businesses and usernames.

2. Enter your name. List the following results:

a. Address 3705 S 256th ct

b. Phone number 253.854.3944

c. One web page that mentions you
facebook


3. For a journalist, the address may be the most important -- phone numbers change quickly. Google the address and zoom in to the street view of the address.








Let's go deeper into the web.

1. Open the website addict-o-matic, which will search Twitter, blogs, and more.

2. Enter your name or username.

3. List one result that surprises you.  Theres nothing, except a lawyer that has the same name as me.






Do they operate a website? If so, let's start with this web tool: http://whois.domaintools.com

1. Let's look at the WSU hacker, who apparently operates the website wsu1812.com.


2. Who is the administrative contact for the website? Butch Cougar

3. What address does he/she list? 755 NE Campus Ave
   Pullman, WA  99163

4. What phone number? 509-335-4200
5. Google the phone number. Whose name do we get? WSU Presidents office



Online Court Records




We want to do the most basic steps: Find court documents.



Before we can go to the courthouse, we want to have the case number. In Washington state, we can do that here: dw.courts.wa.gov




First, we’ll search for my speeding tickets in Washington. (Innocent, I swear.)



1. What’s the case number for my 2007 ticket in Spokane County? U00085707

2. Enter the name of one of your sources. Results? Post them without including their names -- we aren't trying to embarrass anyone.
3. Enter the name Frederick Russell. We want the court documents for Frederick David Russell, beginning with the file dated 06/07/2001. How many different numbered documents are in the file? 417
4. We don't want to look through hundreds of pages of documents by hand, and neither do court clerks. We know that we're interested in the "Letter To Judge From Kaufman." What's the subject number? 27
5. Go back one page. Look at entry 14, which lists Russell as Judgment/Debtor, as of Jan. 2, 2008. How much does Russell owe in restitution? 160,192.60

What did russell do ... ? killed 3 people then fled to ireland







WSU Libraries




1. Search World Cat for ‘Lexis-Nexis.’ This is a powerful and expensive database that tracks everything from news stories to court documents.



2. On the results page, look at the left-hand side under ‘Refine Your Search.’ Click on ‘Lexisnexis (Firm)’.




3. On the next page, choose the second result, ‘LEXISNEXIS (academic)’. Click.



4. Scroll down to the link to the LexisNexis database. Click.



5. On the next page, click to signify you are an authorized user.



6. Now you need to enter your WSU username and password. Why? This database costs tens of thousands of dollars each year. It’s only open to you if you have a WSU ID number.



7. Let's search for Frederick Russell Pullman.

a. Leave the Source Type as 'Major World Publications.'


What’s the first headline and publication of the first story? Why this publication? The Mirror

b. Hit the back button. Change the Source Type to 'Newspapers.'

Now what pops up as the first story? lewiston tribune



8. Much of this coverage is duplicative. Why? Let's look at the coverage by one newspaper: The Spokesman-Review. On the left side, click 'Newspapers,' and then 'Spokesman-Review.'




9. We now have 97 results, which is a little more manageable.




10. Reorder them according to Publication Date. (This is flaw. LexisNexis forces us to go through this process of choosing The Spokesman-Review again.) Find the first story with WSU in the headline. Post the headline to your blog.




11. When was Russell arrested?



12. Scroll through these stories until you get to story 81. Post the headline.




13. Let's switch to another method. Google "Frederick Russell" though without the quotation marks. What is the length of his sentence? 14 years





14. Go to the Google News Archive. Enter "Frederick Russell" again. Now we have a timeline that shows the years that provide the most results.




15. Let's try a different topic. Enter "Berlin Wall." List three approximate years that had the highest spikes in news coverage. Why? 1960: it was built, 1989: it came down, 2009: anniversary