12 Useful Online Tools that Every Journalist Needs – 2020 Guide

Preparing useful content for the public can be challenging for journalists. They research, create and bring up the right information in front of us. Different media options are available where we get news about the world like newspapers, radio, TV, online websites, etc.

The information is presented in different ways like text, audio, videos, etc. Nowadays, journalism is not about broadcasting investigated stories but also, writing a highly-engaging report to boost traffic on your website. It is hard to organize the data required to write a story correctly. Every journalist must need some online tools to simplify their work.

These tools are useful enough to help in presenting the information accurately and crisply. Some online applications organize the collected data and support in publishing engaging stories. In the following write-up, you will know some of the essential tools that every journalist needs.

1. Online Tool for Audio and Video Conversion to Text

Sometimes, a journalist has a video or an audio recording of an interview that needs to be translated into text. It is challenging to convert everything word-to-word in the text form. You can use Transcribear to convert speech to text with ease. It is one of the amazing online tools for converting audio or video files into text files.

2. Online Language Translators

Journalists visit different locations and meet various people that may speak different languages. It is difficult to extract the piece of information, i.e., available to them in different languages. So, you can use an online language translator to translate different languages. It will help you to understand the information and write a story correctly.

3. Proofreading Online Software

Writing mistakes are common in content, but a writer cannot detect all the issues in his content. A proofreading tool is necessary to fix all the grammatical, language and punctuation problems. It will automatically fix your content and also suggest better words to write in it. You can also check whether your content is plagiarized or not. It is important not to publish any information without proofreading.

4. Image Editor and Resize Tool

Your information gets enough support if you publish images along with your content. If you have taken any pictures from a different source, then you must edit the image to make it unique. Otherwise, you can face copyright issues. Many online tools are available to edit images like resizing, changing the color scale, blur, etc.

You can also create attractive collages on your website. If you have bulk images to resize, then you can use an online application. You have to upload all the images, and within a single click, the images will be resized.

5. Online Polls and Surveys

You can create polls and surveys on any niche with the help of different online plugins. Whenever a visitor lands on your web page, he will vote on it. You can collect complete information to understand what people are thinking about the topic. It will help you to analyze some essential topics and create a piece of news to publish.

6. Title Optimizer

Every journalist needs an attractive and eye-catching title to drive the audience towards the news. A catchy title will tempt the reader to read the information. If you want too many clicks and views, then you must work on the exciting titles. You can optimize your story’s title with the help of online tools.

7. Fact Checker

A journalist needs to confirm the news, whether it is fake or not. The journalists investigate the rumors and fake statements by people on social media platforms. It is essential to collect facts and analyze whether they exist or not. You can get an online fact-checker tool to check the reality of information. After confirming it, you can publish it.

8. Publish Content on Social Media

Nowadays, the general audience invests most of the time on social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It will be great if they get useful information on such platforms. You can get various online tools that can connect your website with social media. Whenever you share any information, it will automatically post the news on such platforms.

9. Video Editor

People like to watch the news more than reading newspapers. You can reach your audience with an exciting and corrected video. Online tools are available to make changes in the video.  It is easy to edit and present them in front of everyone. You can create a short video, add subtitles, or insert a music lawyer. You can learn and create impressive videos for your website and news content.

10. Data Analytics

It is necessary to understand the behavior of the visitor. You must know what a reader is searching, how to bring traffic to the website, targeted data, etc. Data analytics is a must for every media company. You can create content strategies to drive them on your platform after analyzing the audience.

11. SEO Tools

If you want that every reader must land on your posted news, then you have to optimize your content. Whenever a reader searches anything on a browser, he checks the top links only. You have to target different keywords in your exciting and fresh content, along with images and videos.

You can also add inbound and outbound links to keep the reader busy on your page. The content should be engaging enough that a reader must stick to it. You have to think as a reader and present your data on online platforms. It is not necessary to have enough skills in SEO because there are online tools to optimize your content.

12. Google Dataset Search

Google has introduced a popular online search engine to collect free information. It is beneficial to data journalists who are investigating facts and stories. They need to gather surveys, correct stats, information, and etc., on specific news. The platform provides such data to them. They use legitimate sources for quoting in their news articles. After analyzing the data sets, they can write correct news and publish it briefly.