I’ve been preaching this for several years now, but here is a screen-by-screen walkthrough on how you can find possible sources through Foursquare.<\/p>\n

First, an obvious but necessary PSA: Just because it is on social media, it does not make it a fact. These are tips, not facts. In fact, I checked in from my USC office 20 miles away from the Los Angeles International Airport.<\/p>\n

Step 1:<\/strong>
\nSearch for the location. (NOTE: Your location doesn’t matter. You can check in from anywhere.)
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Step 2:<\/strong>
\nCheck in\u2026 after finding the location you are looking for. (NOTE: For transparency, I recommend you add that you are checking in to look for sources. (Here’s my note\/tweet<\/a>):
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Step 3:<\/strong>
\nAfter checking in, go back to your home screen and select your recent check in.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Step 4:<\/strong>
\nFrom your check in, click on the location you just check in on
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Step 5:<\/strong>
\nClick on the thumbnails of people who are there with you
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Step 6:<\/strong>
\nSelect someone who has checked in that location, noting their relevant times.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Step 7:<\/strong>
\nOn their profile, you learn more about where they are from, their bio and, more importantly, how to get a hold of them through social networks (in red box).
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Step 8:<\/strong>
\nReach out and start<\/em> your reporting.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Person’s Twitter account:
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

An Instagram the person tweeted while on the plane, watching the breaking news coverage.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

NOTE: While their profiles are set to public, as a courtesy, I tried to blur out and anonymize people’s identities. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been preaching this for several years now, but here is a screen-by-screen walkthrough on how you can find possible sources through Foursquare. First, an obvious but necessary PSA: Just because it is on social media, it does not make it a fact. These are tips, not facts. In fact, I checked in from my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,22,24,26],"tags":[36,216],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2620"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2659,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions\/2659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.webjournalist.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}