Mar 30, 2009

Pew surveys online journalists

A study from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism has found online journalists to be generally more optimistic about the future of journalism than their counterparts in print but also worried about a loosening of basic standards. From the study:
Overall, the online journalists surveyed are less likely to think journalism is headed in the “wrong direction” than are journalists from legacy media. They are also more confident than they are pessimistic that online news will find a self-sustaining revenue model.

-snip-

Those journalists surveyed, who come largely from websites linked to legacy media, also believe the Web is changing the fundamental values of the journalism—mostly for the worse. In particular, they are worried about declining accuracy, in part due to the emphasis online that news organizations are putting on speed and breaking news.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what is an "online journalist"?

Gary Scott said...

Here's how the survey describes the respondents:

Demographics

More than one-third of those surveyed were employed by a traditional newspaper. More than 13
percent worked for an independent website, while another 13 percent were at a multi-platform
network, such as ABCNews.com or CNN.com. Magazines, portal websites and wire services were
the workplaces of another 5 to 6 percent, respectively, of those who were sent the survey.

Occupation

One-third of the survey recipients are editors or content managers; more than a quarter describe
themselves as directors or managers of their organizations. Ten percent held positions as writers or
reporters and another 10 percent were content producers.