This summer, a new generation of journalists learned the arts of reporting, video editing, feature writing, audio storytelling — and stalking.

“It was shocking to see how easily you could look into strangers’ private lives,” said Leora Yashari of California. “I can’t believe how easy it is for other people to stalk us at any time.”

The cherubs at the National High School Institute - Journalism learned they could find out someone’s phone number, address, previous address, estimated age and property and tax information, Yashari said.

Instructor Tom Giratikanon taught the lecture and said stalking is a useful skill for journalists to have.

“It’s always best to go into interviews or make phone calls prepared,” Giratikanon said. “The more you know, the better questions you will have. Often, if you are talking to a political figure or someone in power, you can often find out information that they might not necessarily tell you about but that you need to know.”

Giratikanon said his favorite websites to use are Switchboard.com and PrivateEye.com because they are usually accurate with their information. Online courthouse records are also useful, he said.

However, Giratikanon said that just 20 years ago people had to go down to the courthouse in their county to look up property records or court filings.

“Now, anyone in the world can access that information, which is not necessarily a good thing, but it’s clearly useful for journalists,” he said.

Giratikanon said using the Internet’s resources to find information about sources should be taught in basic reporting classes.

“If you’re in journalism school and you’re not teaching your kids how to do this, you’re making them worse journalists,” Giratikanon said. “You’re making it so they are unable to find information that they might need. Journalists should know every technique to get as much information as possible.”

Although it may be useful, Yashari said that it is creepy that people’s information is available.

“It’s valuable to us as journalists because we can get information on our sources if they are unwilling to give it to us directly,” Yashari said. “But it’s a little frightening to think that strangers could know all of this personal information about you.”

Monica Ramirez of Illinois said that although it is useful for journalists, the skill is disturbing.

“It’s scary to think that anyone can punch my name into a search engine and get my relatives' addresses,” Ramirez said. “It’s such an invasion of privacy, and I think if I were to get a phone call from some random journalist, I would probably be upset to find out that they got my information from a website like that.”

Joseph Rosales of California said it is good for the instructors to teach this skill.

“If a source didn’t want to share their information then you have to get it yourself,” Rosales said.

Before cherubs, Rosales said he never obtained a source’s information through those methods. However, he said that he did while at cherubs and that it wasn’t creepy because it is “our duty as journalists.”

Yashari said she had to stalk companies and organizations for her school paper, but she’s never had to track down an individual.

 “It was more difficult than I expected, but that was before all the tools we learned at cherubs,” Yashari said. “If I were to do it again with all of these newfound methods, I might have saved myself a lot of time and energy.”

Ramirez has never stalked anyone with these methods. She said doesn’t plan on using them unless it is critical to the story.

 However, Ramirez said she does see some importance in using the Internet to get a source’s information, especially when she is trying to cover every angle of a story and can’t get in contact with a source.

 “As a journalist, you need to be nosy,” Yashari said. “It is really up to you to get the information you need.”