Netimperative
Netimperative
  • Home
  • Ads
  • Content
  • Mobile
  • E-commerce
  • Social
  • Regulation
  • Video
  • Viral
Menu
  • Apple
  • Amazon
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • YouTube

US newspapers using Twitter wrong- study

November 18, 2011

Many mainstream media firms in the US are missing a trick when it comes to Twitter, using the micro-blogging services as a one-way broadcast platform, rather than to engage users and peers in conversation, according to a new study.

The research, from the Pew Research Center: found that most major news outlets simply broadcast links to their own content. By doing so, they are missing out on many of the things that can make social media a powerful tool for journalism.
pew%20twitter1.JPG
The report was put together by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism along with George Washington University, and looked at 3,600 tweets from 13 of the country’s major newspapers, radio and TV stations sources over the course of a week.
More than 90 percent of the tweets sent by the Twitter accounts for those organizations contained links to their own websites — only 6 percent of them contained links to a non-news related website, 1 percent linked to another news site, and less than 1 percent were without links.
pew%20twitter%202.JPG
The key points from the study are listed below:
• The news outlets studied varied widely in the number of Twitter feeds or channels offered and in how frequently they posted. On average, the news organizations offered 41 different organizational feeds. The Washington Post, at the top of the list, offered 98, more than twice the average. The Daily Caller, on the other hand, offered a single Twitter feed. The level of activity also ranged widely. While as a group the outlets in the sample averaged 33 tweets a day on their main organizational Twitter feed, that number ranged from close to 100 a day to fewer than 10.
• The news organizations were much more similar in the focus of their Twitter activity. The vast majority of the postings promoted the organizations’ own work and sent users back to their websites. On the main news feeds studied, fully 93% of the postings over the course of the week offered a link to a news story on the organization’s own website.
• News organizations were far less likely to use Twitter as a reporting tool or to curate or recommend information that originated elsewhere. Just 2% of the tweets from the main news feed analyzed were information-gathering in nature-seeking views or first-hand accounts from readers. And only 1% of tweets studied were “retweets” that were reposted from a Twitter feed outside the organization.
• The news agenda these organizations promoted on Twitter closely matches that of their legacy platforms. A comparison of the top stories across these Twitter feeds and across the same mix of legacy outlets reveals four out of the top five news stories were the same on Twitter as in the legacy outlets. For the week studied, February 14-20, 2011, unrest in Middle East and the U.S. economy topped both lists.
• Individual reporters were not much more likely than the news institutions to use Twitter as a reporting tool or as a way to share information produced by those outside their own news organization. An examination of the Twitter feeds of 13 individual journalists-the most followed at each outlet studied-found that 3% of the tweets solicited information, a similar rate as the institutions overall. And 6% of their tweets were retweets of postings from outside entities (compared with 1% on the institutional Twitter feeds).
• Researchers also examined the Twitter feeds of one particular news beat-health reporters. These reporters made more use of the reportorial ability of Twitter, though they still produced far more tweets that disseminated their own material. On average, 6% of the health reporters’ postings over the course of the week studied solicited information. That is twice that of the most-followed journalists (3%).
Source: Pew Research Centre

Uncategorized blogging, content, media, newspapers, Twitter

Archives

Tags

advertising agencies Amazon analytics Android Apple apps Australia BBC brands Brazil broadband China Christmas comScore content digital marketing ecommerce email Entertainment Europe Facebook France games Germany global Google government images infographic local marketing media Microsoft music Privacy retail Search security smartphones technology Twitter UK video YouTube

Recent Posts

  • Top six Valentine’s Day ads for 2022
  • 2021 Halloween: digital marketing campaigns we loved this year
  • Empowering employees; the critical link between EX and CX
  • Investing in in-app social features is a must in a world that is crying out to be connected
  • QR codes, Gen Z and the future of OOH

Copyright © 2025 Netimperative.

Magazine WordPress Theme by themehall.com

We use cookies to improve the website and your experience. We’ll assume you’re okay with this, but you’re welcome to opt-out
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT