belgian journalists and social media - bjit - 24/03/2011

Belgian journalists and social mediaFrank De Graeve, Quadrant Communications

BJIT, 24-03-2011

Overview

H About the survey

H Main results

H Possible explanations

H What journalists can do (better) with social media

About the survey

About the survey

About the survey

Social media = hot!

But…H Are journalists adopting these new technologies?

H Which social media are popular and which are not?

H Should we adjust the way we work?

About the survey

H Took place in September 2010 (& compared with results from August

2009)

H 1,800 Belgian professional journalists were invited (via e-mail)

H 489 of them filled out the questionnaire

40% newspaper journalists

43% magazine journalists

26% online journalists

15% radio or tv journalists

H Follow-up of a similar survey we did in 2009

Main results

Do you use Twitter?

In 2009: 9%

Can PR people contact you on Facebook?

In 2009: 15%

In 2009: 38%

Do you use LinkedIn?

Do you watch webcasts of internet videos professionally?

In 2009: 12%

Do you read blogs for professional reasons?

In 2009: 20%

Do you expect a blog to provide news?

How did you start using social media?

Other popular social media

H Wikipedia 86,5%

H Youtube 77%

H Flickr 24%

H Personal blog 16% (20% among FR journalists)

H MySpace 14%

H Plaxo 12%

H Netlog 10% (1% among FR journalists)

H Social bookmarks 4% (Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon, …)

H Gowalla, 4Square 4% (NL only)

H SecondLife 0,6% (= 2 journalists…)

Conclusions

Conclusions

H Twitter: 9 18%

H Facebook: 15 25%

H Webcasts: 12 25%

H Blogs: 20 33%

H RSS: 5 10%

H …

Usage of some social media

doubled

Still, only a minority uses social media

Possible explanations for the results

This concludes the scientific part of this presentation

Reasons for increasing popularity

Reasons for increasing popularity

Reasons for increasing popularity

Reasons for relative lack of popularity

Journalists have little confidence in new technologies.

Reasons for relative lack of popularity

Most journalists rather avoid

mixing private and professional environments.

Reasons for relative lack of popularity

The transparent nature of social

media clashes with journalistic tactics.

Reasons for relative lack of popularity

Experienced journalists are suspicious of hypes.

What journalists can do (better) with social media

New possibilities

Peter Horrocks, BBC

Global News Director

"This isn't just a kind of fad from someone who's an enthusiast of

technology. I'm afraid you're not doing your job if you can't do those

things."

New possibilities

H A great tool for journalists for gathering

information…

LinkedIn: experts, reports, discussions, …

Twitter: news, feedback, fact checking, …

Facebook: vox populi, find witnesses, …

New possibilities

H A great tool for journalists to show what they’ve

been up to…

Visibility

Create a reputation as an expert

Create an audience, even fans!

New possibilities

Thank you!For more information, details, … contact me:

twitter.com/fredegre – fdg@quadrantcommunications.be