Editing Open-source intelligence (section)

== Categories ==
OSINT sources can be divided up into six different categories of information flow:<ref>{{Cite book|title=The US Intelligence Community |isbn=978-0813349183 |last1=Richelson |first1=Jeffrey |year=2016 |publisher=Avalon }}</ref>

*Media: print [[newspapers]], [[magazines]], [[radio]], and [[television]] from across and between countries.
*[[Internet]]: [[online publication]]s, [[blogs]], [[discussion group]]s, citizen media (i.e. – cell phone [[digital video|videos]], and [[user created content]]), [[YouTube]], and other [[social media]] websites (i.e. – [[Facebook]], [[Twitter]], [[Instagram|<span lang="vi">Instagram</span>]], etc.). This source also outpaces a variety of other sources due to its timeliness and ease of access.
*Public government data: public government reports, budgets, hearings, [[telephone directories]], press conferences, websites, and speeches. Although this source comes from an official source they are publicly accessible and may be used openly and freely.
*Professional and academic publications: information acquired from [[Academic journal|journal]]s, conferences, symposia, [[academic publishing|academic papers]], dissertations, and theses.
*Commercial data: [[satellite imagery|commercial imagery]], financial and industrial assessments, and databases.
*[[Grey literature]]: technical reports, [[preprint]]s, patents, working papers, business documents, unpublished works, and [[newsletter]]s.

OSINT is distinguished from research in that it applies the [[process of intelligence]] to create tailored knowledge supportive of a specific decision by a specific individual or group.<ref>{{cite web |title=Spy Agencies Turn to Newspapers, NPR, and Wikipedia for Information: The intelligence community is learning to value 'open-source' information |url=https://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/09/12/spy-agencies-turn-to-newspapers-npr-and-wikipedia-for-information.html |access-date=2008-09-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023193900/http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/09/12/spy-agencies-turn-to-newspapers-npr-and-wikipedia-for-information |archive-date=2012-10-23 |url-status=live }}</ref>