A Survey of VU/Text Use in the Newsroom

Abstract

A survey of journalists at four daily newspapers found that nearly nine of 10 journalists use a database every week, most often to obtain background information or to check facts. Most journalists surveyed said they believe it was important to cite information taken from a database although many also believed that citation is unnecessary or impractical when the cited information is very factual or already widely used. Younger journalists seem to make more use of databases and about half of those surveyed felt that use of database information resulted in better stories.