A couple weeks ago Tony Hirst published a rather wonderful post about what he calls ‘tech anatomy’: in other words the workings “of the computing related stuff that populates our daily lives”. These include:

1. The Anatomy of a URL
2. The Anatomy of a Web Page
3. The Anatomy of a Tweet
4. The Anatomy of an Email Message
5. The Anatomy of a Powerpoint File
6. The Anatomy of an Image File

In admirably succinct fashion, and with illustrations, he picks apart those six things. It’s a masterclass in the sort of system knowledge that every journalism student should have, because this knowledge is crucial to newsgathering and verification.

Here are just some of the ways:

• The Anatomy of a URL is important in being able to understand where information might be stored on a website, including ‘hacking’ the URL to obtain that information.
• The Anatomy of a Web Page is important in being able to find media and information that the web page is using (source files such as video, audio, images and data); to be able to verify the webpage (for example when and where it was created; hidden messages etc); and of course in your own production, e.g. SEO.
• The Anatomy of a Tweet is likewise important in location and verification of information.
• The Anatomy of an Email Message is important in verification too, but also in protecting your sources and understanding how much is revealed through your email communications.
• The Anatomy of a Powerpoint File is again important in being able to find media and information that the document is using (video, audio, images and data again); and again for verification clues.
• The Anatomy of an Image File: understanding the metadata in images is fundamental in working with user generated content; and once again if you understand the metadata that you produce in your media, you should be better able to protect your sources.