Infographic Day series .
The role of social media
Commissioned by ING, Social Embassy investigated the role of social media among journalists and PR professionals in April and May 2013. By journalists they mean bloggers & experts. They define PR professionals as PR advisors, spokespersons and communication professionals. These two groups were questioned by means of a survey. In addition to open questions, they were presented with various statements about social media, PR and journalism. 187 respondents participated in the survey.
The results of the study show that social media play an important role. Journalists (76 percent) and PR professionals (85 percent) believe that their profession can no longer do without these platforms. The two groups actively use these channels every day to spread news, increase their reach, enter into dialogue and discover what is going on. Journalists and PR professionals see social media as a supplementary channel and traditional means remain important. However, journalists more often than PR professionals say that traditional channels have become less important. For the future, 87 percent of journalists and 84 percent of PR professionals expect that the role of social media will only increase.
Fact checking is important
With social media, the flow of information is faster than with traditional channels. 53 percent of latvia phone number list journalists see social media as an important source of information. The question of how reliable a social media message is is of great importance here. Fact checking is and remains an important aspect. It is striking that a large part of journalists indicate that fact checking is done less carefully. Due to the high speed with which information is spread online, they are faced with a dilemma: quickly share possibly incorrect information or check and have the correct information spread.