89% of journalists use blogs to research stories

Feb 15, 2010 by Dirk Singer

‘Where do stories come from?’ asks an article on Media Post.   While previous research showed that online media only accounts for 4% of what you might call ‘new news’, journalists definitely do use it to supplement and build on stories and find out additional information.

A study by George Washington University and Cision found that 89% of journalists turn to blogs for research, 65% to social media sites like Facebook, 52% to Twitter.   And Wikipedia?  Over 6/10 (61%) consult it.

Overall 55% of journalists thought that social media was either somewhat or very important.   However, at the same time 84% said it was ‘slightly less’ or ‘much less’ reliable than traditional media.

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