The power and content of social media has gained further validation this week as a new study shows that more and more journalists are using it to source their stories.

According to the Digital Journalism Study, more and more journalists are using social media as a serious tool for newsgathering and story verification.

A total of 478 journalists from 15 countries were polled in the study. Exactly 47% of them used Twitter as a news source: a dramatic rise from last year’s figure of 33%. The use of Facebook as a news source also rose dramatically, from last year’s 25% to this year’s 35%.
The report also revealed that a third of those polled used Twitter for verification whilst a quarter used Facebook for verification.

The importance of Twitter as a mechanism for publicising and sharing stories was also underlined in the report.

The news comes after last week’s shock “uncovering” of a number of celebrity superinjunctions on Twitter. Whilst some of the celebrities who were named have denied any allegations, what the incident does show is social media’s increasing dominance in the news arena.

Kate Day, social media and engagement editor for the Telegraph Media Group, told one news site: “There is no doubt that social media has become a vital tool for journalists of all types – as a source of information; as a way of getting their stories out there; and as a way of building digital audiences.”

Tags: facebook, news gathering, news sources, social media, social media news, twitter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.