Nearly 73% of respondents sometimes or always use blogs in their research

So reports Henry Blodgett in his Silicon Alley Insider post today. He is quoting from the 2008 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey which surveyed 1,231 journalists. Learn more about the findings here.

Couple that with the fact that social sites are spurring the spread of political content and you have yourself a scenario that is screaming for an online buzz monitoring tool for the 2008 presidential campaign - Wonkosphere.

"According to MSNBC, recent research about young voters found that they tend to be not just consumers of news and current events, but conduits as well -- sending information and links out to their social networks. They also rely heavily on friends and other social network connections as news sources. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter -- traditional news media -- with a social one."

From Silicon Valley Insider and WOMMA Word