Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

Francois Gossieaux points to a new survey which highlights the increasing influence of blogs on the media, here are some of the key stats:

>> Blogs are a regular source for journalists: Over three-quarters of reporters see blogs as helpful in giving them story ideas, story angles and insight into the tone of an issue

>> Nearly 70% of all reporters check a blog list on a regular basis:

>> The majority of journalists said blogs were having a significant impact on news reporting in all areas tested - except news quality

You can see that blogs are also having an influence on Irish media with bloggers regularly featuring on radio shows and some posts getting picked up in the press.

However that still hasn’t stopped the media from failing to check their sources. Here’s an example from the latest bt3a newsletter:

A shocking confession via email from Tonay. “I made a facebook account pretending to be Benazir Bhutto’s son, Bilawal. I filled my profile up with lots of quotes from Buffy and The West Wing, and wrote a statement answering’my’ critics. The world’s media swallowed it up!” We’re genuinely appalled by this, what with the poor woman only just dead, but it is quite interesting. Peculiar that people would treat facebook as a credible source of information but hey. First link is a news story exposing him, while the second is his own account of events.

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