Get Started Guides:
Station website managers: Bookmark this page for RSS feeds, widgets, and multimedia for your site.
Below is a variety of content that public media websites can include with little effort. More advanced technology managers can find tutorials to further customize tools like NPR’s API, Yahoo Pipes, and Twitter. If you have questions about implementing these tools, you can contact us.
Menu of Web Tools:
| FAQs and Fact Sheets Maps Embeddable Multimedia Widgets & Badges RSS Feeds Twitter Feeds |
Using the NPR API Using Facebook Using Yahoo Pipes Using Delicious.com Using the Twitter API Using CoveritLive |
FAQs and H1N1 Fact Sheets
Both the CDC and Flu.gov offer H1N1 FAQs and explanatory text. Feel free to post on your website; this content is all in the public domain. It’s always a good idea to clearly label and provide a link to the source.
- CDC basic H1N1 facts
- Flu.gov comprehensive H1N1 FAQ
- CDC information for specific groups
- H1N1 public fact sheets – From the Partnership for Healthcare Excellence in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Add an H1N1 Map to Your Site
Many sites are attempting to track the geographic spread of H1N1 flu, and provide embed codes so you can display them on your site. At this time, there is very little official data about the outbreak. Before displaying a map, it’s a good idea to evaluate the data quality. Here are some pointers. 
- CDC FluView map
- Flu.gov state-specific H1N1 information map
- Flu.gov map of weekly H1N1 infection level by region – Clickable map. Includes regular seasonal flu data. Not embeddable but easy to link to.
- Rhiza Labs FluTracker
- “Google’s Flu-Shot Locator” – FluPortal blog, 11/11/09.
Embed or Link to Audio, Video, and Photographs
Flu.gov is continually adding Public Service Announcements and other embeddable content
- Congressional PSAs by state – Audio and video.
- CDC PSAs – audio
- CDC PSAs – video
- Flu.gov PSA-contest videos – On Health and Human Services YouTube channel. Contest explained here.
- CDC H1N1 videos on YouTube
- Health and Human Services H1N1 videos on YouTube
- “Laurie Garrett on lessons from the 1918 flu” – A TED Talk, 02/07. Insights from past flu pandemics.
- “Dr. Larry Brilliant wants to stop pandemics” – A TED Talk, 02/06. Uses example of smallpox to call for global system to contain pandemics.
- CDC images of the H1N1 virus
- CDC Public Health Image Library – Searchable by keyword.
- “Find H1N1 Photos for Your Website” – FluPortal blog, 10/14/09.
Widgets and Badges
There are numerous widgets and badges with H1N1 information and links to official government sources.
- CDC widgets
- Flu Vaccine Locator Widget (small) NEW!
- Flu Vaccine Locator Widget (large) NEW!
- Health and Human Services widgets
- FDA fraudulent H1N1 products widget
- NPR H1N1 News (Yahoo Pipes widget)*
- Flu.gov Updates (Yahoo Pipes widget)
- CDC H1N1 Updates (Yahoo Pipes widget)
*Stations should first consider using NPR’s API to pull in this content. The widget listed here is created by the FluPortal team by running the RSS feed from NPR’s series Swine Flu: The Second Wave through Yahoo Pipes.
Display H1N1 RSS Feeds
Health agencies and media organizations are creating RSS feeds to distribute and aggregate H1N1 inforamation and resources.
If your site does not handle RSS feeds easily, we have created embeddable widgets for these H1N1 feeds using Yahoo pipes. Select the “Pipes badge” option and then, click on “Get as Badge” near the top of the feed to obtain the embed code. Learn how to create your custom RSS feeds using Yahoo Pipes.
- CDC H1N1
RSS | Pipes badge - Flu.gov RSS | Pipes badge
- WHO H1N1 RSS | Pipes badge
- NPR H1N1 RSS |
- MedWorm H1N1 News Aggregator RSS | Pipes badge
Display H1N1 Twitter Feeds
Both the CDC and Flu.gov have H1N1 specific twitter accounts. Contact your state or local health department to see if they are using Twitter or other social media platforms. If your station is active on Twitter, consider following these agencies and retweet relevant information to your followers.
CDC Flu Twitter feed
Flu.gov Twitter feed
WHO Twitter feed
American Public Health Association Twitter feed
How to display Twitter feeds on your site:
Every Twitter account produces a unique RSS feed. The feed URL is found near the bottom of the right sidebar of every account profile page. Twitter also offers a customizable search widget which you can embed on your site. This search widget can display tweets based on specific keywords or by tweets from specific users, such as the CDC and Flu.gov. We don’t recommend posting a search for “H1N1″ or “swine flu” without pulling them from credible source(s), as the quality of information is low. For more advanced usage of the Twitter API, jump ahead to the Advanced Web Tools section.
Deploy the NPR API
You can access the NPR API to display NPR H1N1 content directly on your website. See our example page and learn how to get an API key and use NPR content on your site.
Create RSS Mashups Using Yahoo Pipes
Yahoo Pipes is a great resource for making custom mashups for your website. One great example is to take a number of RSS feeds and combine and display them as a single feed. You can use Pipes to do this and much more. Find out more about using Yahoo Pipes.
Create Twitter Pages on Your Site Using the Twitter API
Using a simple jQuery plugin, you can make Twitter API calls and display the results directly on your station website. Find out how to implement the API on your website.
Make Your Website More Social Using Facebook Connect
Facebook Connect is an advanced API that allows organizations to integrate Facebook functionality into their websites. In addition, they have easy-to-implement “social widgets” that can make your site more interactive in a matter of minutes. Find out more about Facebook Connect and growing your Facebook strategy.
Use Delicious.com to Bring Added Value to Your Content
Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows users to share interesting articles and websites, and organize these links with tags. Delicious can be a useful tool in collaborative journalism projects and a great way to share links with your audience. Find out more about how Delicious can be deployed on your website.
Host Online Discussions Using CoveritLive
CoveritLive is an easy to use live-blogging platform that can be utilized to host real-time group discussions. It’s a great way for stations to connect with online audiences and provide a forum for conversations about the important issues and ideas in your community. Find out more about CoveritLive.