Study finds vast majority of reporters and editors utilize social media outlets when researching stories.

Conducted by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University’s Master’s Degree Program in Strategic Public Relations, the survey examines the rapid growth of social media outlets as information sources for mainstream journalists. While aware of the need to verify information acquired from such sources, among the journalists surveyed, 89 percent frequent blogs for story research, 61 percent use Wikipedia,  65 percent admit to utilizing Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52 percent subscribe to microblogging services like Twitter.

Complete survey results available here.