Are reporters using social media as a resource when writing stories? I’ve always maintained that most reporters would prefer to do online research as opposed to speaking with a live person for background research. It’s just easier; so why not take the path of least resistance? With all the buzz around social media, it’s not surprising that blogs and social networking sites are now viewed as important research sources by a majority of journalists, according to a new survey conducted by Cision and George Washington University. The study, titled “2009 Social Media & Online Usage,” reports the results of “an online survey of Print and Web journalists from September 1, 2009, to October 13, 2009, to measure use of, and attitudes toward, social media for researching and reporting stories.” The report is available for download from Cision at no charge. Just go to http://tinyurl.com/yeagdeq and enter your information. (Source: Cision, 2010)
Here are some of the findings from the study:
- Most journalists – 56% – said social media was important or somewhat important for reporting and producing the stories they wrote.
- Almost nine out of ten journalists reported using Blogs for their online research (89%).
- Approximately two-thirds reported using Social Networking sites and just over half make use of Twitter for online research.
- Newspaper journalists (72%) and those writing for Websites (75%) use Social Networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook for online research significantly more often than those at Magazines (58%).
- It is important to note that Corporate websites, press releases and especially PR professionals remain consistently used resources for journalists when writing or producing stories.
- Three-quarters of those responding take the number of website visitors (76%) and number of comments or views (74%) into account when measuring the impact of their stories. Number of Twitter followers and number of inbound links are the next most-used metrics (43% each).
- Experience makes a difference: Those with less experience consistently utilize online and social media metrics to measure the impact of their stores more often than do those with more experience.
- Most journalists responding (84%) said news and information delivered via social media was slightly less or much less reliable/vetted than news delivered via traditional media.
- Lack of fact-checking, verification or reporting standards is the number one reason (49%) for journalists’perceptions on the reliability of news and information from social media sources.
This is an interesting study, and extremely valuable for PR professionals who are advising clients on social media strategies. Again, check it out on Cision’s website by going to http://tinyurl.com/yeagdeq.
Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer
