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Among the outlets that were studied, Twitter activity varied widely.
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Major national newspapers tend to offer the most: As a group the four papers studied average 74. The three cable news channels average 45. The rest of the outlets studied-broadcast television, audio, online-only and local newspapers-average 18 Twitter feeds per outlet.
The other point of variation was how many tweets outlets offered. The level of daily activity ranged widely.
When it came to the main organizational Twitter feed, The Washington Post tweeted most, with 664 different tweets over the course of the week studied (February 14-20, 2011). That was followed by The Huffington Post (415 tweets) and The New York Times (391).
The three cable news channels, meanwhile, tweeted the least in the general Twitter feed. MSNBC offered just 33 tweets during the week, Fox 48 and CNN 90.
One question raised by the researchers was whether some of these outlets might use other organizational Twitter feeds to a greater extent than the main one studied here. To test that, researchers tallied all the Twitter posts across all the feeds at each of these outlets. They found that, for most sites, the main Twitter feed either led are ranked near the top in terms of daily activity, and thereby aptly reflects the ranking. The one exception came in cable news. For these outlets, which in many ways pioneered the concept of 24-hour news, their “breaking news” feed was the most active. On the day captured, for instance, CNN’s breaking news feed produced 29 tweets (its main news feed produced 13); Fox News’ breaking news feed produced 113 (its main news feed produced 24); and MSNBC’s breaking news feed produced 68 tweets (its main news feed produced 13).
The Twitter Community
On Twitter, the main public measure of audience reach available is number of “followers”- individuals that have signed up to have all posts from a Twitter feed sent to their own Twitter newsfeed. Following is simple to do-it consists of simply clicking on the “follow” button next to an account. What is not known, though, is whether people ever look at the posts that get sent their way, or whether they actively use their own Twitter account. Thus, the value of a follower is unclear. Nonetheless, having more followers is generally regarded as one sign of success in this realm.
Across the news organizations studied, the number of followers varied dramatically, though that number was not necessarily tied directly to the outlet’s audience size in other platforms (i.e. television ratings or print circulation). CNN had more than twice the number of followers for its main news feed as Fox News did, yet Fox programs have higher ratings on television. The New York Times, which led among national newspapers in number of followers on Twitter, falls behind The Wall Street Journal and USA Today in print circulation.
What emerges more clearly across the board is the degree of growth in followers in just a short period of time. Researchers initially catalogued followers to the main Twitter feeds in February 2011 and then checked them again in October 2011. In that eight-month time period, the main Twitter feeds studied grew their followers an average of 65%.
The amount of growth ranged across the outlets that were studied. Several institutional Twitter feeds doubled or nearly doubled in followers, including Fox News (118%), The Washington Post (100%) and MSNBC (86%). Others had more modest growth, including ABC News (18%) and The New York Times (30%).
Overall, the number of online adults who use Twitter grew 63% in the period between November 2010 and June 2011, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
FOOTNOTES
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