One of the primary strengths of the Web is its ability to provide news and information more rapidly and in greater detail than is possible via traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Furthermore, the Web can employ a wealth of delivery modes: text, audio and video clips, graphics, links to additional information on the subject, etc. The following sites are among the more potential useful data sources available to librarians and educators.

CNN Interactive. http://www.cnn.com

Includes digests of current news and pictures as well as an archive searchable via Boolean operators.

FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. http://www.igc.org/fair/

Focuses on the narrow corporate ownership of the press, the media's allegiance to official agendas and their insensitivity to public interest constituencies.

Media Watchdog. http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~mernst/media/

The page provides links to articles and other Web sources from media watch groups concerned with exposing biases and inconsistencies in the way most news is reported.

National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org

An archive of prior broadcasts including links to affiliated stations for local-interest features.

New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com

The site provides the full text of daily editions, along with special features and forums unavailable elsewhere.

Pathfinder. http://pathfinder.com

Maintained by Time-Warner, the site offers online versions of Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Money, Life, National Review, and AsiaWeek. Special features on high profile news events (e.g., the Unabomber) are also included.

Reuters Headlines at Yahoo. http://www.yahoo.com/headlines

The site makes available the latest breaking stories from Reuters Limited newswire, organized by topic: major stories, business, technology, world, sports, entertainment, politics, and weather.

U.S. News Online. http://www.usnew.com

Adapted from U.S. News and World Report, the site contains links to other Web sources which can provide additional information on a particular topic as well hourly updates to Associated Press news releases and RealAudio sound bites.

USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com

Includes most of the paper's daily content, along with special "cyber" information not present in the print version.

Utne Lens. http://www.utne.com

An international sampler from the alternative press, the source digests information from several sources into a single article on given trends or events, enabling the reader to obtain more than one perspective.

The Week. http://metrotel.co.uk/theweek/index.html

The site provides an overview of British and world news complete with indexing and editorial insights.