Hujo launches national survey on Irish journalists’ use of social media

Social media has become a vital tool to the modern journalist. From Syria, to Turkey and Brazil international news stories are being broken by ordinary citizens on social media everyday and it’s not just serious news. The latest football transfer rumours or celebrity scandal is now more likely to break on twitter than by conventional means. The emergence of this new technology is fundamentally changing the way journalists work and source stories.

The Digital Humanities and Journalism group (HuJo) at Insight@ NUI Galway (formerly DERI) has launched Ireland’s first national survey on journalists’ use of social media. The survey is being sent out to journalists across the country working in print, TV, Radio and online for both local and national organisations. Similar studies have been carried out in the UK, Europe and worldwide but this is the first comprehensive survey on Irish journalists’ use of social media. The survey will provide insight into how the day-to-day job of the journalist is changing in this country.

The ubiquity of social media is quickly changing the global media landscape, leading us to query Ireland’s contemporary journalistic practices. This ground-breaking survey will help to not only delineate these practices, but the data collected has the potential to ultimately result in more informed and accurate reporting. The survey, which should take about 12 minutes to complete, questions journalists on the frequency of their use of social media, their reasons for using social media and how it impacts upon their work.

HuJo is calling for all professional journalists in Ireland to participate in the survey here . All answers will be anonymised, but if you wish to provide your email address at the end of the survey, the results will be shared with you.