Newspaper journalists' information seeking behavior with online information sources

A questionnaire survey of newspaper journalists at the Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer of Raleigh was conducted to gather data regarding use of online information sources (including the Internet, commercial sources, and internally created sources) in the work process of newsgathering. Journalists surveyed use online information sources more often than respondents in nationwide 1999 studies. A majority believes that online sources are very important to information gathering in their work. More than 80 percent use email and the World Wide Web daily, although less than half search internal or commercial databases weekly. Most never use forums, such as listservs and newsgroups, or applications such as FTP and telnet. About 65 percent of respondents are somewhat satisfied with their online skills, and about ten percent are very satisfied