How do journalists use the internet?

An interesting study out of the US this week from Bulldog Reporter/TEKgroup Interational offers PR practitioners insights regarding journalists' use of online newsrooms, blogs, RSS and social media.

Here's some findings that grabbed our attention:

"The findings show that the greatest change in journalism practices due to new Internet technology, is the ability to access corporate news and contact information online 24 hours a day."

"Nearly half of all journalists report visiting a corporate website or online newsroom at least once a week, while almost 87% visit at least once a month. "

"Almost 75% of journalists read one or more blogs to keep up with the subject matter they cover, compared with only about 70% a year ago. Today, some 29% of journalists regularly read five or more blogs to keep up with their beat, compared with about 26% last year. "

"There is an increase in journalists visiting social media sites. Today, more than three-fourths of journalists use social media to research stories, compared with about 67% last year. Almost 38% of journalists now say they visit a social media site at least once a week as part of their reporting, compared with only 28% last year. More than 53% of journalists now say they visit a social media site like FaceBook or YouTube at least once a month, up from about 44% last year."

"Among journalists working in national television, some 10.3% seek audio or video material once a week or more and that number jumps to 46.7% seeking such material at least once every three months. Among journalists working in local radio, some 38.4% seek audio or video from corporate websites at least once a month."

Source: Bulldog Reporter article.

The 2008 Journalist Survey on Media Relations Practices Executive Summary is available for downloading at the TEKgroup website here.

It would be great to see an Australian equivalent study sometime in the future, especially considering Australia's Internet penetration rate is second only to the North America.

These results serve as a timely reminder to business communicators to make sure their online presence is always kept current, easily accessible and responsive. And to also ensure their media monitoring scope includes Internet monitoring to see what others online are saying about them... lucky Slice launched Internet monitoring this month! ;-)

Tracking the media, monitoring the message