Our Favorite Web Sources

Publications Every Extemper Should Bookmark on Their Browser*

How Might You Use These? These represent primary resources that extempers can access to cite in speeches. Each has a search tool, which means you can quickly search keywords within the source to find articles speedily.  Depending on whether you are competing in United States or International extemp (in those states that make that division), you can open tabs on your browser for the sources that are most applicable to your category.

Wire Services Every Extemper Should Bookmark on Their Browser*

How Might You Use These? Wire services are particularly useful because many news sources across the country use them. Newspapers often insert wire service stories word-for-word into their papers, and broadcasters often read text taken from these sources – particularly in local markets. You cannot, however, safely assume that because the source is from a wire service that other news sources will print it, or even use it on the same day. So DO NOT substitute the name of another source for the wire service name on a “hunch” that it will appear elsewhere. The advantage of wire services is that they are often the first to break new news before other publications disseminate it. International news agencies, such a DW, Reuters, and the BBC publish in English and often have coverage of US news from a more independent vantage point.

Balanced YouTube Channels Great for General Background Information

How Might You Use These? While these sources can theoretically be cited (unless prohibited by your state’s rules), we mainly use these sources to gather background knowledge before tournaments. Are you taking a walk or a jog with your headphones on? Play one of these commentators’ videos? Do you like to listen to something when you’re getting ready in the morning? Put one of these reports on in the background? These sources are a great way to have knowledge of the issues you will speak on at tournaments and background information makes your preparation go much faster.

International News Sources with Nationalist Biases**

How Might You Use These? Use these sources with caution if you want to use them in a speech. These are sources run by the government in these countries and they are notorious for censoring themselves of any content that would be critical of their own government. So why be familiar with these? It can be very helpful to know the perspective of a power that frequently is presented in opposition to the United States (such as Russia, China, or North Korea). Occasionally, the subject matter being covered can be neutral enough that it provides a less-biased source. Additionally, on occasion, citing something reported in one of these sources as an example of local propaganda can be used to illustrate the (sometimes outlandish) messages the nation’s people are hearing or reading.

  • China Daily (Chinese English Language News)
  • RT (Russia Today – Russian English Language News Channel)
  • Xinhua (Chinese News Agency)

A Word About Bias

We have aimed to assemble a list of sources that is described by neutral researchers as “centrist” or slightly left or right of center on the political spectrum. Some mainstream news sources have editorial biases (opinion pieces on their editorial page) that are further to the right or left, while their reporting tends to be more centrist. We have tried to include some sources that could be characterized as more to one side of the political spectrum or the other, but have avoided sources experts characterize as being on the far left or far right. This does not mean that these sources are not useful in competition, but the more your analysis can be neutral, the better.

Oh, Those Nasty “Paywalls” (*)

Where we have placed a (*) beside one of the sections above, its because we are aware there are limits on the number of stories you can view from these sources before you have to pay. If there’s one thing that’s true about most students, they aren’t rolling in extra money for news subscriptions. So how do you deal with this? A lot depends on your filing method. Most states now permit accessing electronic resources in extemp prep. Many will choose to access sources through “real-time” searching during prep. Others may choose to download and “file” the text of articles in an online system of folders. Each of these methods, or a combination of the two, may impact the kinds of sources you are able to access as a team.

Real-Time Digital Sourcing

Searching for news sources using Google or another search engine will help you access a variety of news sources, but some of the world’s most respected news publications place limits on the number of articles you can access without being a subscriber. Here are some strategies you can use.

    1. Ask your parents or close family members whether your household may already have a subscription to certain publications. Sometimes publications allow the sharing of subscriptions among family members. Others allow online access to those who subscribe to the print version of the publication.
    2. Check to see whether your school or public library has any special subscription arrangements. Sometimes libraries provide students access to certain publications.
    3. If you are enrolled in dual credit or dual enrollment courses at a college or university you probably have a student ID or email address, giving you access to the university’s library. College and university libraries make large databases of publications available to their students. They also sometimes have deals with newspapers for free or low-cost subscriptions. Many publications will offer free or low-cost subscriptions to any students with a college or university email address.
    4. Consider an aggregator service (example: Apple News+) which allows access to many sources for a single monthly fee. Often the rates for such services can be much lower than purchasing individual subscriptions.

Electronic Filing and Pooling Sources

In the years before the internet, extempers filed newspaper and magazine clippings in file folders stored in boxes. It is possible to do the same thing with electronic folders on a hard drive or a remote drive (such as Google Drive or OneDrive). If filing using this method, it is possible to “pool” subscriptions from multiple team members. One student might provide articles from a newspaper they have a subscription to, while another provides articles from a magazine they have access to, and so on. Articles can be downloaded as PDF files or copied and pasted into a text document. This can distribute the cost evenly across many students, but it requires a lot of discipline.