Journalists and journalism educators are using more technology and are more tech-savvy than the average American, a study presented by the Online News Association on Saturday afternoon revealed.

Conference chair Jody Brannon presented a study, "Keeping Track of Technology: Digital Use Amongst Journalists and Educators," that she had conducted online of 266 respondents in the journalism field. Questions in the study ranged from how journalists and educators used their cell phones to the amount of technological applications they use daily.

"This isn't brain science," Brannon said at the presentation during the third day of ONA's 2006 conference. "But this is evidence that will help shape the direction our organization will go in."

The study, which was conducted through the online organization SurveyMonkey, was taken mostly by those in the online journalism field, as opposed to traditional journliasts, Brannon said.

Out of the 266 respondents, 144 put themselves in the field of "digital specialists."

The study also showed that journalists and journalism educators read blogs more than the average American, and that journalism professors used more digital technology than journalists in traditional media did.

"I am delighted to see that we are way more tech-savvy than the American public," Brannon said.

"We still have much to learn," Brannon noted. "But we have much opportunity to study."

The study's results and more details are available here. Also: See a PowerPoint (1,298K) of the results