Why journalists on Twitter now determine our news diet
More people are now accessing news on Twitter and Facebook, but could this change in our media consumption habits also be changing the role of journalists?
A recent study by Pew Research Center found more social media users now see platforms as a news source. 63% of American Twitter users and 63% of Facebook users said they consumed news on or via the platforms. Both figures were up from 2014, when 52% of Twitter users and 47% of Facebook users logged on for news.
Whilst the digital shift is a well-established trend, the research also suggests that the authors of news could play just as significant a role as the media houses that print or broadcast them.
According to the study, 46% of Twitter users follow news organisations, reporters or commentators. The figure was significantly lower for Facebook, where just 28% of users had liked, friended or subscribed to media brands or journalists.
Whilst the study does not distinguish between those who followed news organisations and those that followed individual commentators or reporters, Twitter’s increasing role could be making journalists superstars alongside the brands they report for.
Take the New York Times. Its main Twitter handle @nytimes has 18.2 million followers. How do its staff fare in terms of followers?
I looked at some of the around 1,000 accounts that @nytimes follows, many of them New York Times staff, to find out.
Most journalists seemed to have a few thousand followers. Technology Editor Pui-Wing Tam (@puiwingtam), for instance, has 4,601 followers, National Security Correspondent Michael R. Gordon (@gordonnyt) 2,642.
Then there were the heavyweights. 37,000 users follow Political Correspondent Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT). More than 61,000 users want to see what Presidential Campaign Correspondent Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) is reporting on. Over 41,000 people have opted in to Mike Isaac’s (@MikeIsaac) tweets about startups, venture capital and e-commerce. Former FT Fashion Editor, nowNew York Times Chief Fashion Critic and Director Vanessa Friedman (@VVFriedman) has 66,000 people tuning in. Labour and Workplace Reporter Noam Schreiber (@noamschreiber) has a following of around 17,000.
Whilst nowhere near the 18 million of the @nytimes account, the combined following of the five heavyweights, around 220,000, provides some anecdotal evidence for the increasing role of the journalist in determining our news diet.
This blog first appeared on mhpc.com