Do Flawed Decisions Flow from Research Methods?
April 16, 2010
“PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey Finds Digital Divide Between Journalists and Bloggers” presented some interesting data about online research. For me,the key points were expressed in this passage:
Among the total respondents, the use of blogs and social networks for research increased significantly in 2010 as compared to 2009. However this spike appears to be skewed by online magazine/news reporters and bloggers. While 91 percent of bloggers and 68 percent of online reporters “always” or “sometimes” use blogs for research, only 35 percent of newspaper and 38 percent of print magazine journalists followed suit. This divergence was also seen when using social networks for research. Overall, 33 percent of respondents indicated using such news sources, but 48 percent of bloggers used social networks, compared to just 31 percent of newspaper reporters and 27 percent of print magazine reporters.
What troubles me is that there seems to be little or no interest in traditional library research. Couple these data with the information in “Armed With Information, People Make Poor Choices, Study Finds” and the roots of some of the ungovernable situations may be poking through the cheerleading for “going digital”.
Stephen E Arnold, April 15, 2010
A freebie.
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