[Debate] Most journalists now get story ideas from social media sources, survey says

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

And social media users in turn look to MSM for story ideas.  An infinite loop?

<http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/178070/most-journalists-now-get-story-ideas-from-social-media-sources-survey-says/>
Most journalists now get story ideas from social media sources, survey says
by Jeff Sonderman
Published June 21, 2012 1:39 pm

Oriella | Journalism.co.uk

An annual global survey of journalists by public relations firm
Oriella finds that more than half now use social media as a source of
story ideas, and nearly half use blogs to find angles and ideas.

Among journalists in North America, the rates were even higher — 62
percent said they draw news from trusted sources on Twitter or
Facebook, while 64 percent rely on well-known blogs as a source of
story ideas. However, journalists said they were much less inclined to
use information from an unfamiliar social media user or blog.

The study’s findings are significant, but so is its margin of error:
It’s based on an online survey of 613 journalists in 16 countries,
with likely fewer than 100 respondents in the U.S. and Canada. Another
survey in 2010 reached similar conclusions about reporters’ reliance
on blogs and social media:

89 percent [of journalists] said they look to blogs for story
research, 65 percent go to social networking sites such as Facebook
and LinkedIn, while 52 percent check out what’s happening on Twitter
and other microblogging sites.

Earlier: 10 ways journalists can use Twitter before, during and after
reporting a story (Poynter) | Social media tool aims to help
journalists find undiscovered, reliable sources on Twitter (Poynter) |
15% of Americans now use Twitter (Poynter)
-- 
Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://mrzine.org/>