A seminar called “Taking the Blogosphere Seriously” at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week revealed the results of a survey of U.S. journalists by Brodeur, a unit of Omnicom Group. The results are definitely worth discussing.
The survey is a part of an ongoing research project with Marketwire to examine the effect social media and blogs are having on traditional news. The findings report that blogs are impacting the speed and tone of reporting.
While it was only a small percentage of journalists that said blogs are helpful in generating sources or exclusives, most see that blogs have the ability to help with the context of the story, angles or new story ideas.
Without a doubt blogs are a regular source for journalists these days. One national newspaper reporter I know every morning reads a list of blogs that affect her beat. She uses it for background, to see what’s being said and to find out what is important to the bloggers. And she’s not the only one, an article in Fox Business on the survey reports that nearly 70 percent of reporters check a blog on a regular basis.
I think that’s crazy, as a former reporter and a blogger. I’m old school, and it takes awhile for me to change my way of thinking. Two years ago, I wasn’t reading blogs. I wasn’t using them as an aid in any way and truthfully I knew very little about them.
Around the time I was leaving my last job at a newspaper, the paper inducted the first reporter blog, there was a link to it on the web site, and even the writer was a little unsure about what he was supposed to say. But all of that’s changed today.
Bloggers have a lot to say. Here are some additional survey findings:
- One in four reporters have their own blogs
- One in five have their own social networking page
- About half of reporters surveyed admit to being ‘lurkers,’ reading blogs but rarely commenting
- Over half surveyed said blogs have a significant impact on the tone and editorial direction of news reporting
It’s up to the reporter as to whether they choose to use the blogosphere as a resource or not, but personally, knowing now what I do, it would be silly not to.
What do you think?
Blogs definitely influence traditional news media coverage. In almost any category there are bloggers who figure out the story before the traditional media. We have proposed a new influence model here:
http://humanvoice.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/i-get-questions-influencers/
Tom O’B