1. SOCIAL JOURNALISM
STUDY 2012
2012 Social Journalism Study - Sweden
Report by Cision & Canterbury Christ Church University (UK)
www.cision.se

2. Social Media
S a and Journ m Stud
nalism dy 201
12
–
– Swedish R
Report by Cision Europ
pe & Canter
rbury Christ niversity (UK)
t Church Un
Execut
tive Summ
mary
 97.2% of Swwedish journa alists reporte ed using som me form of so ocial media for their work.
 Nearly a thirrd of Swedis sh journalists s (31.3%) staated that the ey would not t be able to ccarry out
their work wwithout socia al media.
 The most co ommon socia al media activity they list t is meeting new people in their field d of work
(84.7%).
 Using blogs is the least common social media a activity undertaken, with h 51% saying g they do
not maintain n a work relaated blog.
 This survey identified fivve profession nal social me
edia profiles, , differing in their users’ patterns
of use, knowwledge, purp poses of use, and attitude es:
o Scep ptics (35.5%) are low us
) sers who hav generally negative at
ve y ttitudes towwards the
use and the imp pacts of socia al media;
o Hun nters’ (23.4%%) social med dia use is driv
ven by an em mphasis on s sourcing info ormation
as w
well as findingg contacts an nd networking;
o Prom moters (20.4 4%) are heav vy users of so
ocial media f focusing mai inly on disseminating
and advocating t their work;
o Observers (14.3 are light users who are not keen contri
3%) ter ibutors in th social
he
meddia world but t do use the tools to find d information n and monito or what's goi ing on;
o Arch hitects (6.3%%) are the mo overs and shhakers of the e professiona al social med dia world
usin
ng social med dia extensive ely and regularly for a wid de variety of f professiona al tasks.
 The most coommon type of social m
e media site u
used by the Swedish jou urnalists are content
community and crowds sourcing site with 86.3% of the jou
es % urnalists reporting that they use
this tool on a weekly bas sis.
 The most coommon reas for usin social me
son ng edia is sourc
cing, with 899.3% of the Swedish
journalists stating that tthey use at le east one forrm of social mmedia for th his reason in a typical
week.
 However, ne early a quar
rter of the S
Swedish jourrnalists avoid using socia media mo often
d al ore
due to conce erns over privacy and data security (23.8%).
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3. 1. Surv
vey Backg
ground
The annual Social Media and Jou urnalism Stud dy, conducteed by Cision and Canterb bury Christ Chhurch
Universi ity, charts the changes of f how journa alists and meedia professionals use social media fo or work.
Not surpprisingly, one e year on, journalists are e using a grea
ater variety oof social meddia tools andd are
showing g increasing r reliance on ssocial media for many of their professional tasks such as sour rcing and
monitor ring. Unique to this year’ ’s study is th
he identificat
tion of 5 typees of journalists’ typologies,
which de emonstrate strong simila arities in their use, attitude, and behaviour towards social me edia.
These gr roups are: Ar rchitects, Huunters, Obser rvers, Promooters, and Sc ceptics. To p
put journalist
ts in the
wider soocial context of the chang ging use of technology th his year’s stu
udy also incluudes a comp parison
to Forre
ester’s Social Technograp phics framew work of consuumers’ use o of social media. It is clear that
Swedish h journalists aare more ard dent and reg gular social m
media users t than the general public.
This year's online stu udy was com mpiled from o over 3600 journalists’ res sponses fromm 11 differennt
countriees: Sweden, F Finland, Germ many, UK, Ca anada, US, AAustralia, France, Netherlands, Italy, a and
Spain. A
Although this s report focuuses on the 5 504 response es from Swed den it is wortth noting thaat in
compari ison to the oother 11 coun ntries, Swedish journalist ts had the leeast negativee views about
barriers to using soc cial media annd they also h had the most positive vie ews about th he impact of social
media oon their profe ession. This suggests tha at whilst Sweedish journalists express positive feel lings
about soocial media t this is not be
eing expresse ed in terms oof their actuaal use and enngagement w with
social m
media in a pro ofessional capacity.
2. Swe
edish journalists compared to global jo
ournalists
s
The full report on Sw
weden and its compariso on is covered more fully y in the forth
hcoming Cisio on Social
Journalis
sm Study 20 012 ‐ Global Report. This
s report just covers one or two findin
ngs in relatio
on to the
her countries who partic
eight oth e study with a particular focus on the
cipated in the e Swedish reesponses.
Generally, Sweden f fell towards the middle w
when compa ared to other countries in relation to o the use
and invoolvement wit th social media but scoreed particularrly highly on positive atti
itudes towar rds social
media.
2.1 Hours spent usin ng social media
Daily social media use for work is generally high in the eight countr
ries, although it is not so
omething
most jouurnalists use non‐stop. Even in Canad da and the UUS, where uses are the highest, less t than 20%
of journalists use so
ocial media fo
or eight houurs or more. The uses of social mediaa for work, hhowever,
vary bettween the coountries (Figu
ure 1). Canadda and the UUS recorded an average o of more than n 4 hours
per day using socia media, w
y al while Finland and Germ
d many recorded less than 3 hours. Swedish
journalis
sts placed in the middle w
with 3.46 hoours per day in average.
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4. Figure 1
1 ‐ Difference
es in Social M
Media Use fo
or Work (hou
urs per day p
per country)
)
Canad
da
es
United State
Un
nited Kingdom
Swede
en
Austral
lia
Franc
ce
Finlan
nd
German
ny
0 1 2 3 4 5
2.2 Follo
owers on soc cial media
A simila pattern o ranking em
ar of merged whe countries were compared in relation to ho many
en s ow
follower rs/friends res spondents h had on their ppreferred so
ocial network oblogging site (Figure
king or micro
2). Ther were very little diffe
re erences betwween Canad US and the UK, with about half of the
da, t
journalissts recording g having mor re than 500 ffollowers on
n their prefer
rred site and
d less than 8%% having
no followers/friends For Sweden the large group (4
s. est 47.4%) had b
between 10 01‐500 follow
wers and
28.2% o those wh had over 500 follow
of ho wers. Twelv percent of Swedish journalists had ‘no
ve
follower rs’, the 5th biggest compa ared to all co
ountries.
Figure 2
2 ‐ Number o
of Followers/ Respondents’ Preferred Social Medi
/Friends on R ia Site
C
Canada
USA
UK
No followers
s
Au
ustralia
Up to 100
Sw
weden
10
01‐500
France 50
00+
F
Finland
Ge
ermany
0% 20% 40%
% 60
0% 80
0% 100%
1
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5.
2.3 Dailyy activity on social media
Figure 3 illustrates some of the profession social me
3 e nal edia activitie which we measure in the
es ere ed
survey, with Sweden placed somewhere be etween the most active journalists from the tw North
wo
America countries and the mo inactive users from Finland. On a daily bas just more than a
an ost sis,
post original comments on social networking o microblog
quarter of Swedish journalists p or gging site
(26.4%);; 7.9% use so ocial media tto meet new w people in t their field of f work; 8.9% maintain a blog and
16.7% reeply to comm ments receiv ved in relation to work on n social media.
Figure 3
3 ‐ Daily use oof Selected SSocial Media a Activities (% of respondents)
Country
y Post original Use
U social m media Mainntain a Reply to coomments you
comment on social to meet new
o workk‐related receive in relation t
to
networking or peeople in t
their blog daily your work on socia
k al
ing site
microbloggi fie
eld of w work media sitess daily
daily daaily
Australiia 37.8 133.3 14.8 29.6
Canada 50.3 211 24.3 38.3
Finland 16.1 9..7 2.4 7
France 29.8 144.9 17.7 28.4
German ny 16.7 111 8.1 17.5
Sweden 26.4 7..9 8.9 16.7
United KKingdom 46.9 166.3 9.8 28.1
United SStates 47 199.1 23 36.1
fessional tasks undertake
2.4 Prof en
Responddents were asked about their reaso for using social med and the results indicate use
t ons g dia
widespread use for a number o of different p all, sourcing was reporte
professional tasks. Overa ed as the
main reaason for soc
cial media usse (80% on a average acrooss the count tries) followeed by publishing and
promoti own con
ing ntent (69.4% on average while the least popular task was verifying (5
% e), e s 59.8% on
average). However, again cou untries varied (Figure 4) and using social media for sourcing
informattion/story w
was the higheest in Sweden (89.3%) an nd lowest in Finland (44.4 4%). In total contrast
Finland reported thee highest use
e of verifying
g (67.7%) andd Sweden th he lowest (53 3.6%). The twwo North
Americaan countries reported higgh levels of u
uses across all profession
nal tasks survveyed.
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6. Figure 4
4 ‐ Social Media Use for P
Professional Tasks in a T
Typical Week
k (% of respo
ondents)
Country
y Publishing Sourcing Netwo
orking Verif
fying Monitori
ing
Australiia 74 86.2 67.9 59.2 66.3
Canada 83.2 83.2 73.7 63 61.1
Finland 50.3 44.4 58.6 67.7 81.7
France 64.7 86 69.3 55.8 73
German ny 56.9 85.9 57.7 59.5 56.9
Sweden 62.5 89.3 61.1 53.6 68.3
United 80.9 84 74.5 60.8 66.8
Kingdomm
United SStates 82.7 80.6 77 59.4 68.2
ws about the
2.5 View e impacts of social media a on the profession
Interestingly, a different patternn emerges when journalists are asked d about their views and a attitudes
towards the impact of social media on the journalistic profession (Figure 5). Surprisin
s ts t ngly, the
Swedish journalists reported th most pos
h he sitive views about the im
mpacts of soocial media on their
profession and the Australian jo
ournalists th least. The were not
he ere table differe
ences in view about
ws
crowdsoourcing and whether it im mproves the e quality of jjournalism. 7 74.6% of res spondents in Sweden
agreed at least modderately tha crowdsourcing improv quality w
at ves while only 25% in Austr
2 ralia and
19.3% in
n Germany did so.
5 ‐ Views abo
Figure 5 out the Impa
acts of Social
l Media on the Professio
on (% of resp
pondents)
S
Sweden
Finland
F
Canada
C Very negative
UK Moderately negative
France Ambivalen
nt
USA Moderately positive
Ge
ermany Very posit
tive
Au
ustralia
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
2.6 View
ws about bar reased use of social med
rriers to incr dia
The survvey asked ab bout trustwo orthiness of information on social mmedia, concerns over priv
vacy and
data sec
curity and regulation of s social media use in their organisationn as these were consider
red to be
barriers to increase use. Ove
ed erall, privacy and data security co
y oncerns cam out as the most
me
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7. important barrier to o increased social media use, and inte ernal organis
sational reguulations were e seen as
the leastt significant barrier. Swe
edish journallists were the most upbe eat about ov vercoming ba arriers to
social m
media use foollowed by their counteerparts in C gure 6). In contrast,
Canada and the US (Fig
Germany had the highest num mber of respondents w who had neg gative views about ove
s ercoming
barriers. For instancce, 52.2% of respondents s in Germany y agreed (at least moderately) that c concerns
over privacy and data security prevent th
d y hem using ssocial media more, com
a mpared to 2 23.8% in
Sweden.
Figure 66 ‐ Perceptionns about Ov vercoming Baarriers to Social Media U Use (% respo ondents)
den
Swed
USA
Cana
ada Very negat
tive
nce
Fran Moderately negative
UK Ambivalent
Moderately positive
Finland
Very positive
Austra
alia
Germa
any
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
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8.
3. Changes one year later
Compared to last ye ear’s survey, Swedish jou urnalists shoow some sign nificant channges in their patterns
of social media use between 20 and 201 (Figure 7) The numb of journalists using all social
011 12 ). ber
media h has increased d in the last year but witth clear evidence that Swwedish journ nalists are ke
een users
of conteent communities and cro owdsourcing g, social netw
works and blogs building g on already high use
in 2011. . Growth with around 20% emerged d from most other social media sites s and it is anticipated
that this growth will continue in a similar pattern ne year. Ov
r ext verall, judgin by the significant
ng
growth t this year Sweedish journalists are clea arly engagingg with social media for thheir work.
Figu
ure 7 – Use o
of different s
social media for work in a typical we
eek (% of respondents)
% journa
% alists us
sing diff
ferent so
ocial me
edia for
r
work in a
w a typical
Microblogs
s 39,8
63,7
Pro
ofessional soc
cial networks
s 25,4
46,6
6
Blogs
s 59
79
Video/photo
o 44,9
72,4
Soc
cial networks
s 69,9
85,3
3
Content communities
s 82,8
86,3
3
2011 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
2012
Attitude towards s
es social media are mixed and have alltered significantly since last year in both a
e n
positive and negativve way. For e example, althhough journalists agreed d that social media enables them
to be mo ore engagedd with their aaudience (56.3%) this had d declined from 73% in 2 2011. In high contrast
is the vie
ew about crowdsourcing g. In 2011, 30.2% agreed d that crowdsourcing imp proved the q quality of
journalissm, while a year later th
hose who ag greed increas sed significantly to 74.6% %. Views we ere much
divided about the immpact of soc cial media on productivi ity. In 2011 42.6% agreed that social media
improve es their productivity against a slight ddecline to 40
0.1% in 2012 2. However, over the year, those
who stro ongly disagreed that soc cial media im
mproved pro oductivity almmost doubled from 9.6% % to 21%.
Equally, in 2011 36.7% strongly disagreed th hat social media would lead to demise in the jo ournalism
profession and this i increased too 62.9% in 20012 suggestin ng that with greater use of social me edia over
the past t year journa
alists feel that the impac ct on the profession is le ess than firsst thought. L Last year,
the top three com
p mmunication methods b between PR professiona and journalists wer email,
als re
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9. telephonne and face‐
‐to‐face whereas this yea ar the top three were em mail, face‐to‐‐ face and telephone.
Only 2.2 of journa
2% alists said th would p
hey essionals using social
prefer to be contacted by PR profe
th
media – in the lis
– 5 st after email l, face‐to‐fac
ce, telephone e and wire se
ervices.
4. Patt
terns of So
ocial Med
dia Use Va
ary
Social mmedia is used d by the majo ority of Sweddish journalists with 97.2 2% reportingg that they u use social
media in n some form m. The most common type of social media perfo ormed is me eeting new p people in
their fie of work, with 84.7% of journalis reporting that they use social media for this reason
eld sts g u m
(Figure 8 Using so
8). ocial media f this reas is particularly popular amongst freelance jo
for son ournalists
with a t
third (33.3%) saying that they use s
t social media to follow people they meet in pers on a
m son
weekly basis comp pared to only 16.1% of journalists working in large orga
f n anisations, 227.3% of
journalis working for mediu sized or
sts um rganisations, and 24.3% of those working fo small
, % or
organisa contrast, the use of blo is one o the least common so
ations. In c e ogs of ocial media activities
undertaken (Figure 1) with 51% saying they y do not maintain a work k related blo
og and, there efore not
unsurprisingly, 56.7% % saying theey do not pro ovide links in
n a blog mak king this the least common social
media activity performed. Interestingly, how wever, whilst t providing links in blogs is the least common
activity right across the media s sectors, two thirds of online journalists still repoort doing thiss (66.7%)
compare ed to only a third of thos se in the other media sec ctors (32.9%
% of newspap per journalist ts, 38.6%
for maga azine journalists, and 36.9% for broadcasting jou urnalists).
Figure 8 8 – Percentag ge of respon ndents who r report using particular so ocial media activities for work
Type of Social M
Media Activity
y centage of Respondents
Perc
Use soci ial media to meet new pe eople in your field of woork 84.7%
%
Reply too comments y you receive in relation to
o your work on 83.3%
%
social m
media sites
Monitor r discussions on social me edia about o
own content 82.5%
%
Start following some eone you me et in person o
on a social 80.8%
%
network king site
Post origginal comme ent on a sociaal networkin
ng or 73.8%
%
microblo ogging site
Manage e a professionnal, work‐rellated accoun nt on a sociall 70.6%
%
network king or micro oblogging site
e
Contribuute to conten nt communit ties or crowddsourcing sittes 62.3%
%
Re‐post on microblo ogging site 54.6%
%
Maintain n a work‐rela ated blog 49%
%
Provide links in your r blog 43.3%
%
In terms of the mo common daily activit
s ost ties, managing a professional, workk‐related acc
count on
social neetworking or r microblogg ging site is th
he most freqquently perfo ormed socia al media activity with
over a q ournalists (26 reportin that they do this on a daily basis and that they post
quarter of jo 6%) ng s
commen nts on social l networking g and microb blogging site
es on a daily basis. Man naging a professional
work‐related accoun nt on social nnetworking a and microbloogging sites iis particularly common fo or online
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10. journalis with 42.7% stating that they do this on a daily bas compared to only 1
sts sis 17.7% of
newspap 20.5% of magazine and 27.4% of broadca journalist When it comes to weekly
per, o e, % ast ts. o
activities, however, the most popular activ
vities relate t keeping tabs of othe opinions of their
to t ers’ s
work with 28.6% of Swedish jou urnalists replying to com mments they receive in re elation to th
heir work
on sociaal media sites
s every week k and 26.4% making it a w weekly habitt to monitor discussions on social
media about their ow wn content.
Figure 99 – Number o of followers/ /friends on t
their preferr red social ne
etworking/ m microbloggin ng site
(% of re
espondents)
More th
han 500 28,2%
1
101‐500 47,4
4%
Up
p to 100 12,3%
1
None 12,1%
The num mber of follow wers/friends s journalists have on their preferred social netwo orking/micro oblogging
sites are also a usef
e ful way of mmeasuring journalists’ en
ngagement with social media (Figure with
w m e 9)
only 12. .1% stating t
that they do not have a followers/friends. N
o any Nearly a half (47.4%) sta
f ated that
they had 101‐500 followers/frie
f ends and ov a quarte (28.4%) reported hav
ver er ving more th 500.
han
Closer innvestigation of the diffe
erent age gr
roups reveal that you
led unger journa alists are particularly
active wwith over half f (52.2%) of tthe 18‐27 yeear olds having more tha an 500 followwers/friends and only
4.3% of this age group stating that they d not have any. This contrasts w nearly a quarter
did e with a
(21%)of journalists a aged over 45 5 reporting that they do not have any y followers/ffriends and o only 17%
reported d having more than 500. . Again, online journalist
ts were the most active of the media a sectors
with nea arly half (46.2%) having more than 500 followers/friends, w whereas the other media a sectors
were all y to have between 101 a
l more likely and 500. On nline journalists were also the least likely to
report n not having any followers s/friends (5.1
1%) and only ercentage of broadcasters (7.1%)
y a small pe
said the same. In comparison, 13.6% of magazine journalists and 16.5% of ne
e c m ewspaper jo ournalists
stated th hat they do n not have any y.
4.1 Prof
fessional an
nd demogra
aphic factors influence
e social media use
The proofessional an demograp
nd phic backgro
ound of jour
rnalists influe
ences their use of socia media.
al
For instance, journa
alists aged 1
18‐27 have t highest self‐rated le
the evels of kno
owledge abo social
out
media a spend th most tim using social media in a typical day whereas those aged over 45
and he me n
report thhe lowest for both. Interestingly, thoough, the 188‐27 year old ds are most li ikely to use 4
4‐5 types
of social media tools for their w work whereas older journ nalists, when n they use them, are mo ore likely
to use 55‐6. The youunger journalists show gr reater diverssity in the pu urposes for wwhich they u use social
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11. media. F For example 43.5% of the 18‐27 year r olds state t that they usee social meddia for publisshing and
promoti ing, verifyingg, networking, monitorin ng, and sourc cing whereas s only 19.2%
% of the over r 45s and
35.3% o of the 28‐45 year olds re eported using social med dia for all of
f these taskss. Difference es in age
can also o be seen in preferred so ocial media tools with social network king sites beiing the most t popular
for the 1 18‐27 year o olds (91.3%) and the 28‐ ‐45 year olds s (91.7%) whhereas conte ent commun nities and
crowdso ourcing sites are the most popular for journalists aged ov 45 (84.7
s ver 7%). There are also
differences in terms s of the type of activity thhey perform m with the mo ost common n daily activit
ty for 18‐
27 year olds (43.5% and 28‐45 year olds (
%) 5 (34.1%) bein to post o social net
ng on tworking or blogging
sites, wh hereas the m most commo on activity fo
or the over 4 45s is to mon nitor discuss
sions on soci ial media
about th heir own con ntent (20.5%).
Differen nces in socia media use are also a
al e apparent wh looking at the diffe
hen erent media sectors.
Online jo ournalists, foor instance, s spend the mmost time using social me edia in a typical day and have the
highest self‐rated kn nowledge lev vels whereas in both situations mag gazine journaalists show t the least.
Online jo ournalists als so show the most divers sity in terms of the numb ber of social media tools they use
in a day y, being more likely to re eport using 6 different t types of soci ial media tools (35.9%) t than any
other number whe ereas 5 is tthe most coommonly re eported for newspaper journalists (23.4%),
magazin journalists (27.3%), a broadcas journalists (31%). Of note, all online and b
ne and st f o broadcast
journalis sts reported using at least one type of social me edia tool for work where eas 2.3% of m magazine
journalis sts and 5.7% % of newspap per journalistts stated tha at they did not use any. Magazine jo ournalists
showed the least diversity in th number of professio
he onal tasks th used soc media fo being
hey cial or,
most likely to use 3 (25.8%) than any other number ‐ w with sourcing, monitoring g, and publishing and
promoti ing being the e most comm mon ‐ where eas journalis sts from the other media a sectors we ere more
likely to state that t
o they used so networking, monitoring, verifying, publishing
ocial media for all 5 – n
and promoting, and sourcing. A Again, social networking sites were t the most common type of social
media tool used by the online (94%) and a the new
also wspaper (83.5%) journalists whereas content
s
commun nities and crrowdsourcing sites were the most common typ of social media tool used by
e pe
magazin ne (88.6%) an nd broadcast t journalists (91.7%).
Finally, differences in social me edia used ba
ased on orga anisational s is appar
size rent with fre
eelancers
spending the most time using social med in a typ
g dia pical day and having th highest s
he self‐rated
knowled dge compare ed to those w working for small, medium m, or large o
organisationss.
4.2. The
e profession
nal jobs tac
ckled with h
help from social media
a
Figure 1
10 ‐ Professio a tools in a typical week (% of respondents)
onal uses of social media
Publishin
ng and Sou
urcing Netw
working Ve
erifying Monitoring
promooting
Blogs 22.6
6% 55
5.2% 12
2.1% 15.5%
1 40.3%
Content c
communities and
3.2%
% 72
2.8% 2.6%
2 35.5%
3 16.9%
crowdsouurcing sites
Microblo
ogs 33.9
9% 46
6.2% 24
4.8% 13.9%
1 36.5%
Professio
onal social net
tworking sites
s 6.5%
% 15
5.3% 26
6.6% 5.6% 16.3%
Social networking sites
s 53.2
2% 53
3.8% 47
7.6% 21.2%
2 40.7%
sual sharing si
Audio‐vis ites 14.7
7% 51
1.8% 5.2 13.1%
1 27.8%
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12. Social rea
ader and book
kmarking tool
ls 1.2%
% 5.
.8% 0.8%
0 2.2% 5.6%
The mos st common t type of sociaal media tool l used by the e Swedish journalists are e content com mmunity
and crowdsourcing sites with 886.3% of the journalists reporting that they us this tool f work
e s t se for
(althouggh with different degrees of frequen ncy). In cont trast, the lea
ast common type of soci ial media
tools us are social reader an bookmar
sed nd rking tools w
with only 12
2.1% of the Swedish jo ournalists
reportinng that they use these sittes. The moost common reason for u using social m media is for sourcing
(89.3%) whereas verifying is the e least comm mon with on nly 53.6% of Swedish jou urnalists stat
ting they
use soci media for this reason In fact, a types of s
ial n. all social media tools were commonly used for
a
sourcing in a typica week (Figure 10) with the excep
g al h ption of prof
fessional soc network
cial king sites
which, n surprisin
not ngly, are most commonly used for n networking. Social netwworking sites are the
s
most common social media tool used for publishing and promoting ( (53.2%), netw working (47.6%), and
monitor ring (40.7%) whereas coontent commmunities and crowdsourc cing sites are the most common
e
social m
media tool use ed for sourciing (72.8%) aand for verifyying (35.5%).
4.3 Do j
journalists have enoug
gh knowled
dge?
When it comes to how journali rate the knowledg of social m
t h ists eir ge media, just u
under a half (42.1%)
f
report h
having good to complete knowledge and less than a third (28%) repor having litt or no
e rt tle
knowled dge. As can be seen fro Figure 11 newspape journalists were the m
om 1, er s most likely o all the
of
media se ectors to repport having n no knowledg ge (5.1%) wh hereas online e journalists were the most likely
to repor having complete know
rt wledge (15.44%). In com
mparison, no of the broadcast jou
one b urnalists,
only 0.8 of the m
8% magazine and 3.8% of the newspap journalis felt that they had c
t per sts complete
knowled of social media. Ag also made a differenc to how jo
dge l ge e ce ournalists rated their kn
nowledge
levels. None of the e journalists aged 18‐27 reported ha aving no kno owledge of social media whereas
6.6% of the over 45s s did. In conntrast 17.4% of the 18‐27 7 year olds feelt they had complete kn nowledge
of social media only 0.4% of th over 45s did. Freelance journalists were als the most likely to
y he so
report hhaving complete knowled dge of sociall media (15% %) when com mpared to journalists wo orking for
large (1
1.8%), mediu (6.3%) a
um and small (3
3.4%) organ nisations. S hereas only 2.6% of
Similarly, wh
journalis with a m
sts mainly local/ /regional audience and only 5.5% o those wit a mainly national
of th
audience felt that th hey had a complete know wledge of so ocial media, 116.1% of inte ernational joournalists
rated themselves as having complete knowle edge of socia al media.
Figure 111 ‐ The diffeerent media sectors’ self f‐rated know wledge levels s (% of respoondents)
No Know
wledge Co
omplete Knowledge
Newspaper 5.1%
% 3.8%
Magazin ne 3.8%
% 0.8%
Broadcaasting 1.2%
% 0%
Online 1.7%
% 15.4%
5. Attitudes are
e generally
y positive
More th two thi
han irds of Swedish journal believe that social media helps them to promote
list
themselves better ( under two thirds (61.9% think that it helps them to comm
(67%), just u %) t municate
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11

13. better, aand over hal lf (56.3%) be
elieve it help
ps them to e engage more e with their a audience (Fig gure 12).
Less thaan a third (31 1.3%), howe ever, believe that it is a n
necessary pa art of their wwork and on nly 40.1%
think so
ocial media improves the eir level of p
productivity. Opinions, h however, vary depending on the
age of the journalist 18‐27 year olds being far
ts with the 1 r more likely
y to have pos sitive opinions about
the impa act of social media on their work and d the over 45 5s being far less likely. Foor instance, 86.9% of
the 18‐227 year olds agreed that social media a helps them m to promote e themselves s better wher reas only
55% of t the over 45s s agreed witth this. There were also o differences s amongst th he different types of
media ssector with online journnalists being the most likely to agree that social media ha had a
g as
positive impact on t their work. As an examp ple, 73.5% o of online journalists agre eed that social media
allows them to com mmunicate better with people releva for their work comp
p ant r pared to only 56% of
y
magazin journalists. In addition, wherea nearly ha (48.4%) o the journ
ne as alf of nalists with a mainly
a
internattional audien stated that they wo
nce ould not be able to carr out their work witho social
ry out
media oonly a quarte (26.5%) o the local/r
er of regional journalists and less than a third (32.7% of the
%)
national l journalists f
felt the samee.
Figure 1
12 ‐ Perceptio ons about thhe impacts o of social med dia (% respon ndents)
Agr
ree
Views about the impact of socia al media on t their work
Using soocial media a allows me to promote my yself and my y work much h better 67%%
Because e of social meedia, I commmunicate bett ter with people relevant for my work k 61.99%
Because e of social meedia I am mo ore engaged with my aud dience 56.33%
Social m
media have im mproved the productivity y of my work k 40.11%
I would not be able t to carry out my work wit thout social m media 31.33%
Views about the impact of socia al media on t their profess sion
Crowdso ourcing impr roves the qua ality of journ
nalism 74.66%
Social m
media are und dermining traditional jou urnalistic valu
ues, such as objectivity 34%%
media will lead to the dea
Social m ath of profess sional journaalism 9.9
9%
When it came to opinions abo the imp
t o out pact of socia media on their profe
al n ession, almo three
ost
quarters of the Swe
s edish journa
alists (74.6% felt that c
%) crowdsourcing has impr roved the qquality of
social m
media comp pared to only a third w who felt th social m
hat media is und dermines tr raditional
journalisstic values (3
34%). Intereestingly, freelance journa alists were th
he most likel ly to think th
hat social
media w lead to the death of professio
will onal journaliism with neearly a quar
rter agreeing to this
g
stateme ent (23.3%) c compared to o journalists working in l large (4.8%) small ( 8.1%%) and mediu um sized
organisaations (12.5% %). Internattional journa alists were thhree times m more likely t
to believe th hat social
media w lead to t death of professional journalism (29%) com
will the f m mpared to loocal/regional (10.7%)
l
and nattional journaalists (6.9%) Further, whilst some online (28
). e 8.2%) and bbroadcasting (21.5%)
journalissts agree thaat social med dia is undermmining tradit tional journaalistic values, it is noneth
heless an
opinion most strong gly felt amonng print journalists, with over a third d of magazin ne journalistss (35.6%)
and und der half of the newspaper journalists (43%) in agr reement with h this.
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14.
Figure 1
13 – Reasons
s for not usin
ng social med
dia more (% of responde
ents)
Not used b
by relevant contacts 15,5
5%
There a
are too many regulations at
t work 9,1%
9
Concerns over privac
cy and data se
ecurity 23
3,8%
Th
he information
n cannot be tr
rusted 13,9%
%
The journalists were also asked about their thoughts on potentia barriers to using socia media
d al o al
(Figure 113). This revvealed that nnearly a quarrter of the Sw
wedish journ nalists avoide ed using soci ial media
more du ue to concerns over priva acy and data a security (23
3.8%). This wwas a particu ularly strong g concern
for broadcasting (29 9.8%) and newspaper jou urnalists (29.1%) as well aas for magaz zine journalis sts (22%)
whereas s far less for online journnalists (12.9%
%). Age again made a dif fference to oopinions on t this topic
with 20. .5% of the ov ver 45s statinng that they couldn’t truust social media compare ed to just 8.7 7% of the
18‐27 ye olds and surprisingly only slight less, at 8
ear d tly 8.3%, of the 28‐45 year olds. For f
freelance
journalissts (25%) the e lack of rele
evant contac cts using sociial media waas the most p popular reas son given
for not using social media more e often and one not so commonly g ose working for large
given by tho
(13.1%), , medium (14.8%), and s small (14.8% %) sized organisations. AA quarter of f those aged d over 45
(24.5%) also agreed ason they didn’t use soc
that the rea cial media m more was bec cause it isn’t t used by
relevant t contacts, an opinion far less likely t to be agreedd on by the 1 18‐27s (8.7% %) and the 28 8‐45 year
olds (7.9
9%).
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15. 6. Prof
fessional profiles
Unique tto this study y was the ide
entification oof five types of journalists based on t
their use, knoowledge,
attitude, and behav viours towar social m
rds media. This a
analysis was created us
s sing cluster analysis,
which sttatistically or
rganises the groups on th he basis of sh
hared behav viours.
Swedishh journalists a are divided into the follo
owing catego ories:
Sceptics (35.5%)
 Spen
nd the least amount of time on socia al media
 Have the least knowledge of f social medi
ia
 Almost never co social media sites
ontribute to s
 Tend
d to have ne egative viewss about usefu
ulness and im
mpact of soc
cial media
 Leas
st likely to us
se social meddia for netwo
orking
s (23.4%)
Hunters
 Mos st common r
reason for us sing social media for wor rk is sourcing
g information n
 Regular users off a range of s
social media forms
 High h number of Twitter follo
owers
 Regularly use so
ocial media foor networkin ng and build professional l relationship
ps
 Keep up‐to‐datee profiles on social netwo orking sites b
but give limit
ted contribut tions as
cont
tent creators
s
Promot
ters (20.4%)
 Use social media
a for a variet
ty of reasons unction is publishing and
s but a key fu
prom
moting own content
 Regular users of
f a range of s
social media forms
 Monnitor discussions on socia
al media abo n content at least weekly
out their own y
Observers (14.3%)
)
 Visit
t social networking sites at least weekly
 Tendd to use narrrow range off social media forms
 Mainnly use socia
al media to soource inform
mation
 Irreg
gular content creators annd contributoors
ects (6.3%)
Archite
 Spen nd the most hours on social media
 Use social media a extensively
y
 Rate e themselvess as having g
good knowled dge of sociall media
 Use a range of social media regularly for r a variety of purposes
 Key content con ntributors
 'Movers and sha akers' of proffessional net
tworks
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16. 6.1 Des
scriptors of Professional Social Media Users
Scepticss: This group p representss the least acctive users. TThey rarely, if ever, crea ate content on social
media sites and are poor networkers. Their s self‐rated kn
nowledge about social m media is low a and most
of them use only one or two typ pes of social m
media forms s. Their use oof social med dia for publis shing and
promoti ing, network king, and verrifying are re
elatively low. Their most frequent so ocial media a activity is
watching videos wh hich they do monthly. They tend to have negat
o T o tive views about the immpacts of
social m
media, and th hey disagree that social mmedia is a ne ecessary tool l for their woork. If they uuse social
media it t is most like
ely to be to s
source inform mation and t they are most likely to d do that using g content
commun nities and croowdsourcing g sites.
Hunters s: This group uses a varie ety of social media forms s, but most f frequently u use social net tworking
sites. Th
hey tend to h have positivee views abou ut social med dia but don’t t agree they would be pr revented
from carrying out th heir work wit thout social media. Sour rcing is the m
most important reason w why they
use soci media bu networkin is also a key reason why they us social me
ial ut ng se edia. They use social
media t meet new people in their field of work an use socia networkin to start f
to w nd al ng following
someone they met in person at t least montthly. They ar re also keen users of microblogs but t are not
frequent content creators an contribu
nd ute less tha monthly to content commun
an y nities or
crowdso ourcing sites and blogs.
Promote ers: They use social med dia a lot and
d have good self‐rated k knowledge about the too ols. They
have positive views about the im mpacts of soc cial media, aalthough they y are unsure e about whet ther they
would n not be able t to carry out their work w without social media. Th hey use a variety of social media
forms, bbut prefer blogs, microblogs and soc cial networki ing sites. They use socia al media for different
reasons, , but publishhing and prommoting is a kkey function f for them.
Observe They kee a keen ey on what is happening in social media, as they visit sites at least
ers: ep ye m s
weekly, but their soocial media contribution such as p
n, ommenting, happens less often.
posting or co
They are not frequent content creators on social media, but occ
t casionally coontribute to content
commun nities, crowddsourcing sittes, and writ te a blog. Thheir preferred social med dia platform is social
network king. Their mmain reason for using soci ial media forr work is for sourcing info ormation.
Architeccts: They use e social medi ia the most. They have the highest self‐rated kno owledge abo out social
media. TThey have ppositive view about soc media, e
ws cial especially in relation to its impact o better
on
commun nications, re
elationship w the aud
with dience, as w as prom
well motional opp portunities. TThey use
social m
media for different reaso
ons, most no
otably for so
ourcing inforrmation, net tworking, mo onitoring
what is going on as well as pub blishing and promoting o own content t. They are n not only key y content
creatorss and contrib butors but arre often the ccentre of net tworks.
6.2. Fea
atures of th
he Swedish Professiona
al Social Me
edia Users
As can bbe seen from
m Figure 14, the demogr raphics vary depending o
on the profeessional social media
user typ The Ob
pe. nters, and t Architect all have a equal proportion of male to
bservers, Hun the ts an
female mmembers wh hereas the SSceptics and Promoters bboth have mmore male thhan female m members
(58.7% aand 56.3% reespectively). Swedish jo
ournalists age
ed 18‐27 are
e far more lik
kely to be Pr
romoters
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15

17. (43.5%) than they are to be any y other profe essional sociaal media use er type wher reas those aged over
45 are m most likely to
o be Sceptics s (48.5%). TThere are als
so difference es in relation
n to the med dia sector
the journalists work for with online journalis sts more like
ely to be Prom moters (37.66%) in contraast to the
newspap per, magazine, and bro oadcast journalists who are all more likely to be Sceptics (44.3%,
s
45.5%, a and 35.7% re espectively). It is also th
he journalists
s with internnational audiences who a are most
likely to be Promo
o oters (41.9% and, contrastingly, international journalists have a ve small
%) l ery
percenta of Hunt
age ters (6.5%) c
compared to those with national (2
o h 24.4%) and local/region (25%)
nal
audiences). Further r, freelance jjournalists are particularrly unlikely to
o be Architeects (1.7%) and those
from lar and med
rge dium sized organisation have a sm
ns maller perceentage of Obbservers (11
1.9% and
10.2% re espectively) than the free elancers (21.7%) and tho ose from sma ions (17.6%) do.
all organisati
Figure 1 ‐ Demog
14 graphics and profession characte
d nal eristics of th Swedish Professiona Social
he al
Media U User Types (%% responden nts)
Sce
eptics Ob
bservers H
Hunters Promoters Architect
ts
Age
18‐27yrs 21
1.7% 4.3%
4 26.1% 43.5% 4.3%
28‐45yrs 25%
2 16.3%
1 27.8% 24.2% 6.7%
46 + 48
8.5% 13.1%
1 18.3% 14% 6.1%
Type of
f organisatio
on
Newspaper 44
4.3% 6.3% 26.6% 17.1% 5.7%
Magazi ine 45
5.5% 16.7%
1 18.2% 13.6% 6.1%
Broadccasting 35
5.7% 11.9%
1 29.8% 13.1% 9.5%
Online 9.4%
9 25.6%
2 22.2% 37.6% 5.1%
Audien
nce reach
Local/R
Regional 40
0.3% 10.7%
1 25% 14.8% 9.2%
Nationaal 33
3.1% 15.6%
1 24.4% 22.2% 4.7%
Interna
ational 25
5.8% 22.6%
2 6.5% 41.9% 3.2%
Size of organisation
n
Large 35
5.7% 11.9%
1 29.2% 16.1% 7.1%
Medium m 40
0.6% 10.2%
1 25% 16.4% 7.8%
Small 34
4.5% 17.6%
1 18.2% 23.6% 6.1%
Freelannce 26
6.7% 21.7%
2 16.7% 33.3% 1.7%
7. Swedish jour
rnalists’ p
personal u
use of soci
ial media is also hig
gh
The 20112 Social Jourrnalism Stud
dy used the F Forrester Soc cial Technog
graphics® seg gmentation m model as
a compllimentary method to explore journaalists’ person usage of social medi and comp
nal ia pare with
those of the genera population Over the past 5 years, the Socia Technogra
f al n. e al aphics® rese
earch has
developed seven classifications of consum
c mer’s use o social media (figure 15). Apply
of e ying this
methodology, the va ariations bettween journa alists’ social media beha
aviours from those of thee general
populatiion are appaarent. Swedissh journalists are more h heavily engag
ged in all asp
pects of sociial media
and the proportion oof journalists
s in the categ
gories of Joinners, Creators, Conversationalists, Coollectors,
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