Study: Majority of Journalists Use Blogs

ClickZ reports that a new study by Euro RSCG/Columbia University shows that more than 51 percent of journalists use blogs regularly, and 28 percent rely on them to help in their day-to-day reporting duties.

What's more the study found that journalists mostly used blogs for finding story ideas (53 percent), researching and referencing facts (43 percent) and finding sources (36 percent). And 33 percent said they used blogs to uncover breaking news or scandals. The only nit is, despite their reliance on blogs for reporting, only one percent of journalists found blogs credible, the study revealed.

That last stat doesn't concern me. Clearly, journalists are hanging out in the blogosphere looking for sources, scoops and more. There's no excuse - no excuse - for not monitoring blogs. And clearly those companies that choose to start positive blogging conversations and maintain them will get more press.

Comments

[Joel]

Dear Steve,

you may want to check Yahoo:

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050620/205878.html?.v=1

it carries the whole press release so you will find even more interesting trends in this survey.

[Blake]

Thanks for the stats, very interesting. I recently attended a blog seminar and remember a journalist responding to a question on how citizen journalism was affecting their work...I remember the journalist saying - there will always be traditional journalists, we just have different tools now (blogs).

[Scott Baradell]

I love it that journalists use blogs but don't trust them. As someone on my blog commented, it's only fitting, since most bloggers watch TV and read the paper but don't trust what journalists do, either. Often, that's what inspires a blog in the first place...

[Hannu Leinonen]

I think that all those journalist that use internet also use blogs. (If we define a blog as a site that has frequently updated information.) They don't have to take a quote or even realize that they get an idea from a blog. Just start wondering about something and it might grow to a story.

Bloggers are influensing journalists and PR is using blogs to promote different views.