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Research: how journalists use social media (and PR professionals)

Ross Dawson, February 15, 2010 2:33 PM US PT

George Washington University and media relations software firm Cision have released a very interesting study of how journalists use social media and online tools.

The headline news is that 56% of journalists consider social media to be important to some degree. This figure pushed up to 69% of journalists writing for online outlets, while just 48% of magazine writers found social media to be important.

Journalists on the importance of social media for reporting and producing their stories
Source: Cision

Social media is used extensively by journalists to publish and promote what they have written, with just 14% saying they don’t use social media at all for spreading word on their work. Almost two-thirds say they use blogs (presumably usually not their own), and 57% use Twitter or other microblogging sites to point to their articles.

Journalists on the social media tools they use to publish, promote and distribute what they write
Source: Cision

Both of these statistics reinforce what I wrote in 2006 describing our Future of Media Strategic Framework about the symbiosis of mainstream media and social media:

The symbiosis of mainstream and social media
A symbiotic relationship is emerging between mainstream media (such as newspapers and broadcast), and social media (such as blogs, podcasts, and online social networks). Mainstream media and social media feed off each other. Blogs provide a vast public forum for discussion of content provided by major media. Leading blog search engine, Technorati, has enabled every online piece on The Washington Post, Newsweek and Associated Press newspapers to display the complete blog discussion about that article, turning an article into a conversation visible to all. At the same time, it has become common for mainstream media to quote blogs and bloggers, sometimes exclusively, and the conversations between bloggers often provide the ideas for media stories. Together, mainstream and social media create a single media landscape in which we can all participate.

Not surprisingly, 85% of journalists said that social media was less reliable than traditional media, however 13% said it was about the same and 2% thought it was slightly more reliable.

The study also covered what services journalists could get from PR professionals that they couldn’t get from social media, with access to sources, answers to questions, perspective on news, and not far behind high-res graphics at the top of the list.

Journalists on the service or information that PR professionals offer that a web search or social media cannot
Source: Cision

It’s pretty disappointing that the stand-out value journalists perceive from PR professionals is access to sources, something which comes with the gatekeeper role.

There is no question that PR professionals will continue to be valuable to journalists. However the rise of social media and online information is in fact superseding part of what journalists look to them for. This is just one of the challenges that PR professional must face, building on the issues covered a while back in my article on Six Facets of the Future of PR, still after all these years ranks #1 on Google for ‘future of pr’.

For the most current insights and trends in the living networks, follow @rossdawson on Twitter!

1 Comments

Nina Greaves said:

I found this article via Twitter

Well written piece, having come from a background of print media sales, I now advertise solely on the internet to promote companies, this includes Facebook / Twitter and the usual Digg / SU etc with really good results.

One to one customer interaction is so much more personal than a printed advertisement, especially if you are working in B2C ecommerce like myself.

We also have a news site and a blog, and customer feedback on these is 100% positive, and we provide this extra free service as an added incentive for our customers to keep returning.

10 years ago things were so much different, just think, who can remember life before the Blackberry / iPhone / laptop generation?

February 16, 2010 4:31 AM

Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of four companies: professional services and venture firm Advanced Human Technologies, future and strategy consulting group Future Exploration Network, leading events firm The Insight Exchange, and influence ratings start-up Repyoot.

Ross is author most recently of Implementing Enterprise 2.0, the prescient Living Networks, which anticipated the social network revolution, and the Amazon.com bestseller Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships (click on the links for free chapter downloads). He is based in Sydney and San Francisco with his wife jewellery designer Victoria Buckley and two beautiful young daughters.