Survey suggests social media may be at a turning point

A new study from America suggests that as far as news gathering is concerned,social media may well be at a tipping point

Journalism.co.uk reports that a study of 371 US journalists and editors by Cision and the Masters Degree Programme in Strategic Public Relations at George Washington University.

According to the results

89 per cent of respondents said they turn to blogs, 65 per cent to social networks and 55 per cent to microblogging sites as part of their research.
Seventy two per cent of newspaper and online journalists use social networking sites for significant online research, in comparison with 58 per cent of those at magazines, while online-only journalists make the most use of Twitter

but says Heidi Sullivan, vice president of research for Cision North America, in a press release.

it's also clear that while social media is supplementing the research done by journalists, it is not replacing editors' and reporters' reliance on primary sources, fact-checking and other traditional best practices in journalism,"