By inmedia
Earlier this week, Brodeur announced new findings on how blogs are influencing traditional journalists. According to Jerry Johnson, head of strategic planning at Brodeur, “While only a small percentage of journalists feel that blogs are helpful in generating sources or exclusives, they do see blogs as particularly useful in helping them better understand the context of a story, a new story angle, or a new story idea. It appears that reporters are using blogs more for ethnographic research than they are for investigative research.”
Here are some highlights from the ongoing research project by Brodeur in conjunction with Marketwire:
- The majority of journalists said blogs were having a significant impact on news reporting in all areas tested – except news quality: The biggest impact of blogs is in the speed and availability of news. Over half also said that blogs were having a significant impact on the “tone” (61.8%) and “editorial direction” (51.1%) of news reporting.
- Blogs are a regular source for journalists: Over three-quarters of reporters see blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue.
- Nearly 70% of all reporters check a blog list on a regular basis: Over one in five (20.9%) reporters said they spend over an hour per day reading blogs. Nearly three in five (57.1%) reporters said they read blogs at least two to three times a week.
- Journalists are increasingly active participants in the blogosphere: One in four reporters (27.7%) have their own blogs and nearly one in five (16.3%) have their own social networking page.
- About half of reporters (47.5%) say they are “lurkers” – reading blogs but rarely commenting.
