Looking for the story behind the story, hundreds of curious Torontonians visited U of T’s International Student Centre on Oct. 23 for the 12th annual Media Democracy Day.
Appropriately titled “What’s Missing in the Media?” the day was packed with presentations on underreported and controversial topics.
One of the workshops, “Investigative Research on the Web: Skills for Activists and Independent Journalists,” led by Tim Groves, focused on crafty research techniques used by investigative journalists, private-eyes, and hackers.
Starting with the ubiquitous search engines, Groves taught a group of about 20 people the methods of obtaining precise search results from deep within the world wide web.
Groves, who collaborates with activists and journalists, said the easiest way to learn internet syntax—specific codes in website addresses—is by “using the advanced search form and paying attention
to the syntax it generates.”
For those at home eager to put the tricks to good use, here’s Grove’s method for uncovering information blocked from all search results: by adding “robot.txt” to the end of a website address, you can access a list of files a website operator doesn’t want you to see.
