Findings

Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are commonly used by journalists as sources of information, according to a survey by Cision and George Washington University. More than half (56 per cent) of 371 respondents said social media was important or somewhat important for researching and producing stories. Although Google (100 per cent), corporate websites (96 per cent) and weblogs (89 per cent) are still used most often for online research, 65 per cent also reported using social networking sites such as Facebook while 58 per cent said they use photo/video sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube and 52 per cent used microblogging sites such as Twitter. Wikipedia is also popular, used by 61 per cent as a research source. 

An editorial study conducted by the Seattle Times looked at how contextual advertising (affinity to content determines ad placement) impacted readers' perceptions of online news content. It found most readers were comfortable with contextual ads in sections focused on softer news - like sports, travel and entertainment - but were not happy to see them next to hard news stories about "serious" issues.

Complaints by media proprietors like Rupert Murdoch that Google News is "stealing" their content has always been countered by the argument that Google and other news aggregators actually direct web traffic back to orignating news sites. However, a survey of news consumers by Outsell Inc. found 44 per cent of Google News visitors scan headlines without ever clicking through to read more. Here's the conundrum: The same survey predicted "a rude awakening" for news organizations that try to protect their content behind paywalls because so many respondents rejected the idea of paying to access news.

Although the Internet has spawned a vast increase in news sources, almost all news is still gathered by traditional media, suggests a study by the Pew Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The study, which tracked how news was gathered and circulated through more than 53 news outlets during a week last year in Baltimore, discovered 95 per cent of new information was published by traditional media - particularly general newspapers, specialty newspapers and local television - and their websites. Across all outlets, however, more than 80 per cent of "news" was previously published information. Meanwhile, the number of stories published by the city daily declined 32 per cent from 1999 and more than 60 per cent of information found in news stories was initiated by government officials, particularly police.