More than 100 journalists took part in the survey after it was featured on HoldtheFrontPage earlier this year.

The responses revealed that 83pc of those surveyed wanted to be sent less material from the PR industry, while 55pc said that more than 90pc of what they were sent was "irrelevant."

It found that much of the material sent by PR practitioners via email was "unusable" either because it was sent in the wrong format, or because it was "simply not newsworthy."

The research also found that journalists regard the practice of making follow-up calls to check whether material has been used as "intensely annoying and ultimately counter-productive."

The survey, carried out by former PR manager and national newspaper journalist Iain Fleming, found that 80pc of PR material is now sent via email, and less than five percent by fax - the reverse of what was the case a decade ago.

Said Iain: "Technological changes in the last ten years have made it much cheaper and much easier to send out content to the media, but this has only resulted in huge amounts of material being sent to the wrong place, at the wrong time and in the wrong format.

"Due to the unreliability of email, a lot of material never gets there, and if it does, it can't be opened. And if it can be opened, much of it is irrelevant and just wastes the time of the recipient."

While email has become the dominant distribution method, the survey showed that almost 95pc of respondents had suffered problems with it.

One summed up the problems thus: "Sent in wrong format, unable to open attachments, too time-consuming to access, one-size fits all newspapers attitude, no knowledge of circulation area so content is irrelevant... shall I go on?"

Others complained of being sent large attachments which crashed systems or filling-up email inboxes so preventing other, more relevant, material from being received.

Iain said: "The reliance on email is perhaps the most worrying aspect of the distribution of material, particularly when it comes from organisations which are supposed to be using a robust form of communication."

The research was carried out as part of Iain's post-graduate diploma course in public relations, which he is studying at Queen Margaret University, near Edinburgh.

He is now business development manager for Wirefast, which provides the Newslink and Tradeclips newswire and multimedia distribution services.

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