About Andrew Van Dam

Andrew Van Dam of The Wall Street Journal previously worked at the AHCJ offices while earning his master’s degree at the Missouri School of Journalism.

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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”