Journalists Weigh in on This Year’s Media Landscape

University Public Relations finds surveys of journalists both insightful and useful as we seek to better understand their preferences for outreach. In addition, they show how the current media landscape and rapidly changing news cycle affect their reporting. This knowledge informs strategies and tactics to more effectively connect them to U of M System resources.

MediaSource recently released findings from their 2020 National Media Survey, which are now available for download. MediaSource received responses from journalists working in television, radio, and print, as well as exclusively online.

Key findings:

• 67% say their newsrooms will never be the same as they were at the end of 2019.
• 89% are more willing to accept videos shot during videoconferencing via Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, etc.
• 81% of journalists surveyed say their management is now requiring additional steps to be taken to ensure diversity in news.
• 100% of journalists say that COVID-19 will be one of the biggest news stories for the rest of the year.
• 80% say it will be the biggest story.
• 74% of journalists say they are open to receiving pitches unrelated to the most prominent stories of the year.
• 68% of journalists agree that, in this new cycle, everyone in the newsroom is now responsible for covering “the one big story,” whether or not that is COVID-19.

If you have any questions, or would like to explore future media opportunities, including using our communications tools to share your faculty’s research and/or expertise with journalists, please feel free to contact Brad Robideau at brobidea@umn.edu. We also invite you to share your thoughts on the survey below.