A survey by a George Washington University researcher and a public relations metrics firm found that reporters and editors rely heavily on social media. In case you haven’t seen any of the recent coverage, here are a few interesting numbers (pulled along with some accompanying text from the press release).
For research:
- 89 percent use blogs
- 65 percent use social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn
- 52 percent use microblogging services such as Twitter
- 61 percent use Wikipedia
- 84 percent said social media sources were “slightly less” or “much less” reliable than traditional media
- 49 percent said social media suffers from “lack of fact checking, verification and reporting standards”
Reasons journalists use PR professionals
- 44 percent use them for “interviews and access to sources and experts”
- 23 percent use them for “answers to questions and targeted information”
- 17 percent use them for “perspective, information in context, and background information”
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