Tag Archives: survey

Take part in Frontline Club survey on freelance safety

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The founder of the Frontline Club, Vaughan Smith, is asking freelance journalists around the world to take part in a survey about the physical risks of their work.

The survey is aimed at freelance camera operators, video journalists, photographers, stringers and other independents anywhere in the world.

Smith says:

I believe that there is an opportunity, post embed-free Libya, for a practitioner-led initiative to move the industry forward on news safety.

In April this year the Frontline Club will host workshops, bringing management, practitioners and freelances together to discuss the issues.

It is my view that freelance interests have suffered in the past for lack of representation. Opinions on these matters outside the mainstream are broad and no freelance can confidently speak for another.

I intend to take a first step to address this by using the data from this survey to inform the debate on safety. The results will be published but not the names of any contributors.

The survey, which should take no more than 10 minutes to complete, can be found at this link.

EJC taking responses for data-driven journalism survey

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The European Journalism Centre is still collecting responses to its data-driven journalism survey, which will help to inform a future series of training sessions.

The survey, which is being run in collaboration with Mirko Lorenz of Deutsche Welle, features 16 questions asking respondents for their opinion on data journalism, aspects of working with data in their newsrooms and what they are interested in learning more about.

Increasingly, governments, international agencies and organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank, are publishing online collections of freely available public data. Developing the know-how to use the available data more effectively, to understand it, to communicate and generate stories based on it by using free and open tools for data analysis and visualisation, could be a huge opportunity to breathe new life into journalism. The aim of this survey is to gather the opinion of journalists on this emerging field and understand what the training needs are.

You can find the survey here, with one of the participating journalists to be awarded with a 100 Euro Amazon voucher.

Media Release: Journalists rate social media as a professional tool

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More than three quarters of journalists rate social media as an important professional tool, while almost 90 per cent are using social media more than they were a year ago, according to new research.

The report, based on results of an online survey of more than 900 UK journalists conducted in this month, follows a similar study, published within the past fortnight, which found 47 per cent of journalists used Twitter as a source, up from just 33 per cent last year.

The use of Facebook as a source went up to 35 per cent this year from 25 per cent in 2010.

This survey also looked at the role social media plays in the relationship between journalists and PR professionals and found 45 per cent of journalists believed that PR professionals did not make enough use of social media.

“Journalists have been quick to incorporate social media into their processes for gathering and distributing news,” Financial Times journalist Martin Stabe, author of the report, said in a release.

“But journalists see social media sites primarily as a channel where they can communicate directly with potential sources or engaged members of their audience, without much involvement from PR professionals.”

Research for the report ‘How social media is changing the role of journalists’, commissioned by Daryl Willcox Publishing, found social media an emotive subject. Out of the 922 journalists surveyed, more than 200 made additional comments – “some scathing, slamming social media as a pointless communication channel to manage, and some pointing to the fact they are now dependent on these websites as news sources”.

Trust in journalists in steep decline, says YouGov research

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Trust in journalists has plummeted over the past seven years, according to a survey conducted by YouGov for Prospect Magazine.

YouGov has been assessing people’s trust in various communicators, decision makers and service providers since 2003, and the forthcoming edition of Prospect compares the polling agency’s latest findings with its first.

Unsurprisingly, politicians have taken a hit since the Iraq war and trade union leaders won’t be going to the prom with the captain of the football team any time soon.

But there has also been an alarming fall in the ratings for journalists. In 2003, ITV journalists had a trust rating of a little over 80 per cent. That figure had fallen by 33 percentage points by August this year, putting BBC news journalists in the lead.

But the BBC might not be getting asked to babysit or look after anybody’s car: trust in its news journalists has dropped 21 points since 2003, down from 81 to 60 per cent.

And it’s a similar story elsewhere: “upmarket” newspapers (Times, Telegraph, Guardian) have suffered a 24 point knock down to 41 per cent in the latest figures; mid-markets (Mail, Express) are down from around 35 to 21 per cent; the red-tops from 14 to just 10 per cent.

By comparison, leading Labour politicians scored 23 per cent, leading Liberals 27 per cent and leading Tories, who were the only group on the survey to win an increase in trust, went from a meagre 20 per cent in 2003 to 29 per cent now.

YouGov’s surveys have consistently found more trust in local, rather than national professionals. GPs, teachers, police constables and local MPs are apparently deemed more trustworthy.

Unfortunately, the polls don’t include data for local journalists. Does the tendency to trust local professionals extend to the local hacks? Are there areas where people trust their hyperlocal start-up more than the age-old local rag?

Feel free to chime in with your own opinions in the comments thread or on Twitter with #trustinjournos. Even though most of you are journalists yourselves…

WSJ offers New Yorkers $200 to talk about their iPads

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The Wall Street Journal is inviting users of its iPad app to share their views on the device – and they are offering $200 for their time.

According to an email published by the Business Insider, the news organisation sent out invitations to New York users to take part in group discussions running from 16-17 August

But it looks like all the spaces may already have been snapped up:

Now the bad news: the slots have already been filled, or at least that’s what we were told after completing a quick survey gauging our eligibility. It’s also possible they just don’t want us.

See the full post here…

Survey attempts to track the changing skills of online journalists

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We know that many journalists today aim to have a finger in every multimedia pie – a ‘print’ journalist wants to understand how to communicate by video or audio, while online reporters should be prepared to build and manage online communities.

The Online Journalism Review is running a simple survey to measure this changing skillset of modern-day online journalists.

A few points, before we get to the vote: First, I’m just going to assume that everyone’s got basic reporting, text writing and copy editing, so those aren’t listed as options. Next, I do not wish to infer that everyone needs to develop all of these skills. Many journalists continue to work in newsrooms where they are expected to specialize. And even independent journalists often can rely on networks, contractors, vendors and open source solutions to cover many of their publishing needs. So if you don’t want help with a particular skill, just leave the box next to it blank.

But the more skills you develop, the more freedom and flexibility you have as a journalist in the online publishing market. I know personally OJR readers who’ve mastered each of the skills listed below, so if you do want to add more to your journalism repertoire, your fellow readers have the capacity to help.

The results already make for interesting reading, with the growing importance of good images and strong communities online reflected in the statistics – so far rated the two top skills mastered by journalists during their career

See the full post here…

Did you lose your newspaper job? Help us with our survey

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A call to all journalists who have left newspaper jobs: Journalism.co.uk’s survey in collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) continues. We’ve had a good response so far, but we still need more data to make for a more informed study. Since we launched the project, even more UK redundancies have been announced; this week, for example, 17 were cut by Trinity Mirror (this time in Merseyside). Please help us by re-tweeting, blogging and forwarding the survey links to people you think may have been affected by the newspaper jobs cull sweeping Britain.

We want to know about your experiences of losing your job and how you have adapted in your personal and professional life since leaving the newspaper. We’re also considering the gap in knowledge and experience you have left behind.

The survey, which draws on work by colleagues in the US and the University of Kansas, is voluntary and confidential. Results cannot be attributed to a specific individual unless the individual chooses to reveal himself or herself. You also can refuse to answer any question. The survey will take 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Take our survey: ‘What do UK journalists do after losing their jobs?’ #laidoffjournalist

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Please spread these links by email, tweet, blog and word of mouth.

A new survey asking laid-off journalists what happens after the newsroom, was launched today by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) and Journalism.co.uk.

Journalists who have left newspapers in the UK are invited to contribute to the study, led by François Nel, who runs the Journalism Leaders Programme at UCLAN.

We want to know about your experiences of losing your job and how you have adapted in your personal and professional life since leaving the newspaper. We’re also considering the gap in knowledge and experience you have left behind.

The survey, which draws on work by colleagues in the US and the University of Kansas, is voluntary and confidential. Results cannot be attributed to a specific individual unless the individual chooses to reveal himself or herself. You also can refuse to answer any question. The survey will take 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Econsultancy: Survey – how journalists use social media

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Econsultancy’s report highlights some interesting figures from a recent survey sponsored by the TEKGroup, which looked how journalists use social media in the newsroom and for newsgathering.

In 2008, according to the study, 44 per cent of journalists surveyed were using RSS feeds regularly, compared with 37 per cent the previous year. Nineteen per cent or more were reading five or more a day.

“Over 70 per cent of journalists surveyed wanted organizations to provide a page in the online newsroom containing links to every social media environment in which that company participates. Thirty-eight per cent of journalists prefer to receive information via company tweets,” reports Econsultancy.

Full post at this link…

InPublishing survey: ‘Behind the turnover figures, the industry is essentially still in profit’

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The publishing industry is in ‘remarkably robust’ health, according to a new survey of 187 companies – encompassing 911 consumer magazines, 855 B2B magazines and newsletters, 413 newspapers (both regional and national) and a total of 1,056 individual websites.

The survey, which was a joint project between Wide Area, Wessenden Marketing and InPublishing magazine, suggests a slide rather than plunge in industry turnover – partly a result of ‘headcount reduction and ruthless cost control, where marketing budgets in particular have suffered’.

“Online growth is clearly outstripping print revenue trends; circulation revenues are performing better than advertising sales; and subscription sales better than retail copy sales. ‘Other revenues’ (which include reader offers, events & services, as well as contract publishing) are showing medium growth, behind online, but ahead of print revenue streams,” the survey suggests.

This is an extensive piece of work, well worth a read (you’ll need to register), and includes sub-sections dealing with:
Online opportunities and threats
Website profitability and costs
How publishers are planning to ‘manage the future’

Some key findings from the report are below:

  • 59 per cent of those surveyed have under 10 per cent of their turnover coming from online/digital activities;
  • Online revenue streams are showing the most growth with paid-for online content, classified online and display advertising ranking above print revenue streams;
  • 20 per cent of publishers surveyed are looking to grow staff numbers, while 54 per cent will hold steady;
  • Online, the highest threat publishers are facing is a lack of resources/focus/knowledge e.g. not having the skills in-house to adapt to new technologies or resources to develop online offerings;
  • Cutting costs and overheads and developing more innovative, multimedia advertising strategies are seen as the most critical tasks for publishers going forward.