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Journalists are increasingly relying on social networks to research the news and promote their work.

According to a U.S. survey made by the George Washington University, 89% of journalists go to blogs and 65% make use of LinkedIn and Facebook to get sources, collect data and find stories.

Even though the vast majority (85%) believe that these channels of information have less credibility than traditional media -so it is always necessary to corroborate the data-, 52% of working journalists are using microblogging, particularly Twitter, to make their research, and 42% often check online discussions.

There are many examples of the journalists’ relationship with these new digital tools, but we can rescue some of those registered in the Online Marketing Blog.

CBC television reporter, Jason DeRusha, says that he begins his days with search engines. “It doesn´t matter what story I’m working on, it always starts with a search. I work on a segment called Good Question, so I often type my question directly into Google, and see what comes up”.

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer in MarketingProfs, mentions that her team uses social networks extensively to find key writers or speakers for their events or publications. “I also use it to monitor key issues to cover in our newsletters, seminars, research, and so on: Social networks are a great way to take the ‘pulse’ of a topic”.

But beyond their use as a research tool, these social networks are becoming an important window to showcase the work of digital journalists.

According to the same survey made by George Washington University, 64% of journalists use blogs to disseminate their work, and 60% use social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook.

57% like to advertise its new productions at Twitter, and only 5% use online forums to promote their journalistic pieces.

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