OLD - AP English Research Guide: New Media

twitter is a popular microblogging social media website.  It can be a great place to find real time information about current events and social phenomena as they're evolving. 

• Please use caution and judgment when reviewing information contained on twitter, as some of the content may be for mature audiences and not appropriate for high school research.
• You do not need to have a twitter account to search tweets.
• To search twitter, consider using Topsy, a great new search tool for twitter that includes ALL tweets since 2006. It's better than twitter's own advanced search, which is biased towards most recent tweets. Check out this NYT blog article to read more about Topsy.
• Another option, if you're focused on the most recent tweets, is twXplorer, which searches the most recent 500 tweets: "Enter search terms to see a snapshot of related activity in the latest 500 tweets. TwXplorer will break down the most common terms, hashtags, and links for you to filter and drill down further."
• Alternatively, try twitter advanced search.
  
• For help with your search, go to twitter help center page.

diigo is a social bookmarking tool.

• You can search diigo community bookmarks and tags using key words.
  

Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced encyclopedia.  It can be a great place to find up-to-date information about current events and social phenomena as they're evolving. 

• Because the authors of Wikipedia articles are not named, it is impossible to determine their authority and expertise on the article subjects.  While studies show that much of the information on Wikipedia is factually accurate, it is impossible to be certain about any given article at any given time.  For this reason, we recommend that you do not cite Wikipedia as a source for your research.
  
• Instead, we recommend that you use Wikipedia to introduce you to a new topic, and then go to an article's original sources to learn more.  Do this by scrolling down to the bottom of the article to the sections entitled References, Sources, Further Reading and External Links.  These will have links back to the original sources consulted to write the Wikipedia article.  
  
• We also recommend you click on the Talk tab at the top of the page to view discussions among the editors regarding proposed changes to the article over time.  This will give you further insight into your topic and controversial issues therein.
• Wikipedia is also a great place to find copyright-free images to use in your research.