clipped from www.newmediabytes.com

Whenever I want to reconnect with someone, I first look to online social networks, such as Facebook and Linked in. I imagine a host of people use social networks for the very same purpose.

So why shouldn’t journalists?

I posed this question to a list serv that includes several journalists I worked with at my college paper, and some didn’t think too favorably of using social media to find sources.

Here’s some of the responses:

• Journalist Marty Weil: Weil says Linked In can be a great source for finding the right sources and also a good place for generating feature story ideas.
• Journalist Michelle Vranizan Rafter: Rafter uses the service as a virtual Rolodex and also uses the Linked In Answers to find potential sources.

What do you think? Is it time to integrate social media into the news gathering process?