You can almost hear journalists across newsrooms in Canada breathing a sigh of relief. Canadians still trust the mainstream media, despite the rise of social media, according to the latest Canadian Media Research Consortium (CMRC) report. According to a recent online survey of 1,682 adults, nine out of 10 Canadians judged information provided by traditional news media to be reliable and trustworthy. This compares to only one in four who say

A Pew study provides further evidence of the growing importance of social networks as a way for people to share and recommend news stories. The study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism shows how Facebook is increasingly driving traffic to news websites. While Google was the top referral service, accounting for about 30 per cent of traffic to news sites, social recommendation is playing an increasingly significant role.

Blogs have become part of the furniture of online news sites, with many journalists enthusiastically taking up blogging as part of their daily routine. The CMRC study on news habits and social media just released shows that a minority of Canadians, 21 per cent, say they read or follow particular journalists online, through blogs or  social networks. But the figure doubles to 43 per cent for students. As part of the research team, I

One of the questions that came out of the CMRC report on social media and the news was about the reliability of social networks as a news source. Our study, Social Networks Transforming How Canadians Get the News (PDF), found that 71 per cent of Canadians who use social networks - more than 10 million people - value them as a way of keeping up with the news. But we also found that only

The third in the CMRC’s series of reports on the news landscape in Canada reveals the dramatic impact that Facebook, Twitter and other social media services are having on the news diet of Canadians. Our report, Social Networks Transforming How Canadians Get the News (PDF), suggests that many people now expect the news to come to them, filtered by family, friends and acquantances rather than only by professional journalists. We found that 43%

Canadians love the internet.  That’s the conclusion of a study that found that Canadians value their home Internet connection more than any other medium An online survey of 1,682 adults, conducted by the Canadian Media Research Consortium (CMRC )and Vision Critical, showed that 42%  of respondents say they would be “least willing to give up” their home internet connection. Some 24% said they would be least willing to give up their television cable subscription,

In the week the New York Times introduced digital subscriptions, a Canadian study shows that consumers just don’t want to pay for the news. An online survey of 1,682 adults, conducted by the Canadian Media Research Consortium (CMRC )and Vision Critical, showed that Canadians are overwhelmingly opposed to fees for content. It found that 92% of Canadians who get news online say they would find another free site if their favourite news site

Given the whole debate over the role of local in journalism, a recent Canadian study offers some surprising data. The study (PDF) into Canadian news habits for the Canadian Media Research Consortium found that TV is the most used source, with the internet and newspapers coming joint second. What is more interesting is the reasons behind the choice of medium. Television was attractive as it was visual and live, whereas

The state of journalism in Canada is coming under scrutiny in an event on Thursday May 29 in Toronto organised by the Canadian Media Research Consortium. The one-day event, entitled The Future of News, aims to “bring together the best minds in industry and media studies to consider some of the challenges posed by today’s media landscape”. The event aims to examine how audiences are changing, the impact of citizen