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Journalistic Research on LinkedIn

Journalistic Research on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is not just for networking, you can also source a lot of useful information for journalistic research, if you know how to use it.
Corinne Podger

LinkedIn has become an increasingly popular platform for sharing news content, but it has a customisable search function that helps with newsgathering, too. 

The search box is located on the top left. 

From here, you can search for: 

  • People
  • Jobs
  • Posts
  • Groups
  • Events
  • Companies
  • Schools
  • Courses
  • Services

Let’s look at how some of these searchers can help you with journalism research. 

Searching for People on LinkedIn

This is useful if you need an expert speaker for your radio or podcast show. You can search for people by name, but you can also search for a job type, and tap on ‘People’ to filter for individual accounts, like this: 

From here, you can add more filters to look for people who are based in a specific country or city, by tapping on ‘Locations’, or work for a specific company, by tapping on ‘Current Company’. 

Searching for Groups on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has a Groups function, and regular LinkedIn users may be more likely to use a LinkedIn Group than a Facebook Group. This is a useful way of finding specialists on a topic or issue. 

Let’s look for groups devoted to “climate change”. By tapping the ‘Groups’ filter, you can see Group names, how many members each group has, and what the main topics of discussion are: 

Searching for Events on LinkedIn

Some organisations list their event on LinkedIn rather than, or instead of, Facebook. To search for events, type a topic into the search bar, and click on the ‘Events’ filter. Here are the results for upcoming events about “biodiversity”: 

Following Hashtags on LinkedIn

You may already know that you should add hashtags to your LInkedIn posts to make them easier to find. But did you know that you can search for hashtags, and follow popular ones so that posts about that topic show up in your news feed? 

Search for a hashtag topic in the Search Box, like this: 

Then you can click on ‘Follow’ to see posts that include that hashtag in future.

About author
Corinne Podger

Corinne Podger is an Australian journalism educator, author, and training consultant who has worked in the media sector for more than 30 years. Her specialisms include mobile journalism, digital-first newsgathering, online verification, social multimedia production, podcasting and audio storytelling, and strategic audience engagement to drive brand awareness and media revenue. She has helped newsrooms, NGOs and social impact organisations in more than 60 countries to introduce digital innovations to grow audiences and support business priorities. 

Corinne is an accredited trainer with BBC Media Action, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and the Solutions Journalism Network. She also works with science and public health organisations to tackle misinformation and disinformation. Organisations she has worked with include Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, UNESCO, Google News Initiative, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, WAN-IFRA, the World Federation of Science Journalists, Internews, Forbes, the World Health Organisation, BBC Academy, Oxfam, and the Global Forum for Media Development.

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