news tracking - predicting riots, war

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> volunteer health workers like this AIDS campaigner in Tahiti can now access an online site, healthmap, that sifts through thousands of news reports a day to predict outbreaks of disease and violence. MEDIA BEHIND THE SCENES Whether news of current events is good or bad, there is always a lot of it, reports Wired magazine. Worldwide, an estimated 18,000 Web sites publish breaking stories in at least 40 languages. That universe of information contains early warnings about everything from natural disasters to political unrest — if you can read the data, suggests the magazine. PACIFIC In the Pacific media, most sites still lack RSS and other simple syndication links. However, this agency is setting up working models that publishers can copy, focusing on options in Google's custom search engine, building a database of 40+ island-only news organisations to start with. Others will be added as suggested. BACKGROUND This agency has proposed a similar approach to officials across the region, referring to this information approach as "headline hunting." Journalists, researchers, and officials can build their own maps - even short term memory ones - scanning headlines for issues of the day and, eventually, helping discern longer term patterns. With an all-Google platform, the agency uses news.google.co.nz to find stories as they emerge on the global scene via email alert. A custom search engines pick up on sector themes - health, education - from publishers that do not have full or even part feeds from their sites. LINKS Tracking the News: A Smarter Way to Predict Riots and Wars Researchers Track Disease With Google News, Google.org MoneyHealthMap DO MORE read more digg story