Tools: Worried About the Edward Snowden Revelations? How to Protect Your Investigative Reporting

Concerned about protecting your confidential sources and communications after Edward Snowden's revelations about Big Brother snooping?

Just came across this interesting post on how to do just that from investigative journalist Dan Meredith of Radio Free Asia. Includes tools to conceal your web research, email, calls and files from prying eyes.

Be aware, of course, that using some anonymity tools can actually be a red flag for spies, themselves attracting attention. Do your own research!

Here's a good tipsheet from the Global Investigative Journalism Network on protecting your investigative reporting.

And on a related note, here's a 65-minute video of former MI5 intelligence officer Annie Machon talking about how spy agencies use and manipulate the media, hosted by the UK's Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Resources: Wayback Machine

I've just come across this cool resource: the "Wayback Machine."

It's an amazing search engine that lets you look through billions of archived webpages going back to the ancient early days of the web in 1996.

It includes a blog, discussion forum, educational resources for kids interested in archiving pages of historic value and an archiving service. Also available are various web collections of pages on topics like Hurricane Katrina and pioneering websites.

Resources: Your Journalism Reading List - Investigative and Otherwise

Good reading list here on online journalism for newbie and vet journalists alike at UK journalism prof Paul Bradshaw's Online Journalism Blog.

And here also on the same site is a great list of free ebooks on journalism, including on investigative reporting.

Among them is journalism prof Mark Lee Hunter's very interesting-looking 209-page The Global Casebook: An anthology for teachers and students of investigative journalism.

A companion to the UNESCO primer on investigative journalism that I blogged about in July, also written by Hunter, The Global Casebook features a fascinating list of dozens of investigative stories from around the world accompanied by notes about how each story was done and its impacts.

Resources: Paul Lima's Freelance Writing e-Guidebook

Successful Toronto freelance writer Paul Lima has written a useful ebook on freelancing, "Everything You Wanted to Know about Freelance Writing," available for free here.

Covers everything from time management to queries, writing article leads and cold calls - questions every journalist needs to confront.

Resources: Freelance Writers' Blog

Freelancers, check out the "Show Me the Money" blog about making a living as a freelance writer. It's geared to members of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, but it's got great posts applicable to freelancers anywhere.

It's cowritten by Heidi Turner, PWAC's B.C. regional director, and Carla Furlong, a business-writing strategist and University of British Columbia business instructor. Their latest post: why and how you should finally pen that non-fiction book you've got rattling around in your head, with advice from several successful authors.

Investigative Journalism Resources: Mentor Program Looking for Help, Open for Applicants

If you're a successful freelancer or investigative reporter, consider helping a newbie. In today's tough industry climate, they need all the help they can get. Or if you're a newbie yourself, a mentorship program can help you get going or to sort out a tricky assignment or career question.

The Society of Environmental Journalists has a successful mentorship program and is looking for mentors who can give advice in freelance pitching and investigative reporting. Find out more at this webpage.

Investigative Journalism: YouTube's New I Files Channel

Just learned of a great new investigative journalism resource, thanks to CBC investigative guru (and one-time boss) Cecil Rosner's worthy blog Canadian Muckraking.

YouTube has launched an investigative reporting channel called The I Files, managed by the U.S. Center for Investigative Reporting. Ten videos are already up, and future content will come from a pile of international sources, including The New York Times, the BBC and Al-Jazeera.

The channel was announced just a week ago and already has 1,700 subscribers. Scratch that -- just noticed it's now 1,701 since I started writing this!

Tools: 50 Cool Twitter Chats for Journos

Hook up with fellow journalists who share similar interests via journalism-related Twitter chats. These are Twitter-based discussions that happen regularly (often at a certain time once a week). Here is an interesting list of 50 good ones.