| Type of interaction | Daily or weekly | Monthly or a few times a year | Never | Not applicable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You engage with audiences on social media | 72 | 16 | 7 | 5 |
| People contact you with story ideas | 70 | 26 | 2 | 2 |
| In comments on your news org’s social media posts | 66 | 24 | 2 | 8 |
| You interview a member of the public | 62 | 28 | 3 | 8 |
| In comments on your news organization’s website | 47 | 26 | 5 | 23 |
| You include a person’s social media post in a story | 22 | 48 | 23 | 7 |
| People write a letter to the editor about your story | 17 | 49 | 13 | 21 |
| You participate in an event by your news org | 6 | 68 | 13 | 13 |
MEDIALIT20: How journalists interact with the public
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About the Author: Jeff Sonderman
Jeff Sonderman is the former deputy executive director of the American Press Institute.
Before joining the American Press Institute in 2013, he was the digital media fellow of The Poynter Institute. His earlier journalism background includes digital news — helping to launch TBD.com, a local digital news startup in Washington, D.C. — and various roles in newspapers, as an award-winning reporter, online editor and metro editor of The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Pa. He was the architect and developer of API's Metrics for News analytics software that reinvents how publishers use data to inform content strategy. He also edited API's Need to Know newsletter, and designed API's Strategy Studies research format for in-depth strategic guidance. And he consulted with publishers on a range of issues related to content strategy, organizational transformation, audience development, newsroom structure and workflows and product management. He graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism.
