Topline Twitter and the Mainstream Media

Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism and The George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs

MAINSTREAM MEDIA SAMPLE (Main newsfeed, analyzed during week of February 14-20, 2011. Exceptions are noted)

Mainstream outlet presence on Twitter Mean number of Mean number of followers per Total tweets in tweets per feed Outlet No. of feeds feed sample day (one day) The Washington Post 98 10,285 1871 20 The New York Times 81 116,664 490 6 The Wall Street Journal 75 37,675 868 12 CNN 73 163,743 702 10 USA Today 41 24,242 406 10 Fox News 39 45,518 379 10 The Huffington Post 37 57,201 665 18 NPR 29 125,317 273 9 MSNBC 23 208,790 387 17 ABC News 15 366,985 191 15 The Arizona Republic 15 3,900 95 7 The Blade (Toledo) 12 3,354 177 15 The Daily Caller 1 28,677 22 22

Mean number of Mean number of followers per Total tweets in tweets per feed Sector Mean No. feeds feed sample day (one day) Major newspapers 74 47,217 909 12 Cable news 45 139,350 489 12 Network News 15 366,985 191 15 Radio 29 125,317 273 9 Online-only 19 42,939 344 20 Local newspapers 14 3,627 136 19 Note: Audit of feeds, followers and tweets per day was conducted on October 6, 2011

Number of tweets from main feed, week of February 14-20, 2011 Number of Source tweets Percentage of total tweets The New York Times 391 13.20% The Washington Post 664 22.40% The Wall Street 104 Journal 3.50% USA Today 205 6.90% The Blade (Toledo) 184 6.20% The Arizona Republic 143 4.80% The Huffington Post 415 14% The Daily Caller 144 4.90% ABC News 316 10.60% CNN 90 3% MSNBC 33 1.10% Fox News 48 1.60% NPR 232 7.80% Total 2969 100%

Big stories on Twitter Big story Number of Percent of tweets total tweets Total 2619 100.0% Middle East Unrest 303 11.6% Economy 260 9.9% Obama admin. 83 3.2% Iran 48 1.8% Education 29 1.1% Grammy Awards 27 1.0% Healthcare 26 1.0% Giffords shooting 22 0.8% China 22 0.8% 2012 Presidential Election 19 0.7% Afghanistan 19 0.7% Mexican Drug War 11 0.4% Silvio Berlusconi Scandal 11 0.4% Scott Brown sex abuse confession 9 0.3% Pakistan 7 0.3%

Big stories, legacy media Story Percent of newshole Economy 31.0% Middle East Unrest Jan '11 22.0% Iran 4.0% Obama Administration 2.0% 2012 Presidential Election 2.0% Gabrielle Giffords Shooting 2.0% Grammy Awards 2.0% Mexican Drug War 1.0% Health Care Debate 1.0% Scott Brown Book/Sex Abuse 1.0% Note: Legacy media sample was modified to be comparable to the list of outlets represented on Twitter

Information gathering on Twitter Information- Non- Non-information- Information- gathering tweets as information- gathering tweets gathering tweets percent of total gathering as percent of total Outlet (N) outlet tweets tweets (N) outlet tweets The New York Times 1 0.3% 390 99.7% The Washington Post 19 2.9% 645 97.1% The Wall Street Journal 0 0.0% 104 100.0% USA Today 8 3.9% 197 96.1% The Blade (Toledo) 5 2.7% 179 97.3% The Arizona Republic 6 4.2% 137 95.8% The Huffington Post 12 2.9% 403 97.1% The Daily Caller 0 0.0% 144 100.0% ABC News 4 1.3% 312 98.7% CNN 1 1.1% 89 98.9% MSNBC 1 3.0% 32 97.0% Fox News 10 20.8% 38 79.2% NPR 2 0.9% 230 99.1%

Source of retweets Percentage of all Source of retweets outlet tweets that as percentage of Retweet source Number of retweets were retweets all retweets Own news organization 247 8.3% 89.5% Another news 7 organization 0.2% 2.5% Other 11 0.4% 4.0% Unclear 11 0.4% 4.0% Total 276 9.3% 100.0% Not applicable (not a 2693

retweet) 90.7%

Percentage of all tweets that were Number of retweets retweets Yes 276 9.3% No 2693 90.7% Total 2969 100.0%

Retweet data by outlet Source Percentage of Percentage of Number of tweets tweets that Number of tweets tweets that were that were not were not that were retweets retweets retweets retweets The New York Times 0 .0% 391 100.0% The Washington Post 21 3.2% 643 96.8% The Wall Street Journal 6 5.8% 98 94.2% USA Today 9 4.4% 196 95.6% The Blade (Toledo) 23 12.5% 161 87.5% The Arizona Republic 20 14.0% 123 86.0% The Huffington Post 98 23.6% 317 76.4% The Daily Caller 2 1.4% 142 98.6% ABC News 61 19.3% 255 80.7% CNN 2 2.2% 88 97.8% MSNBC 9 27.3% 24 72.7% Fox News 21 43.8% 27 56.3% NPR 4 1.7% 228 98.3% Total 276 9.3% 2693 90.7%

Where tweets drive traffic Number of tweets Percentage of all Percentage of all Traffic destination containing link tweets traffic-driving tweets Own news site 2756 92.8% 98.6% Another news site 26 0.9% 0.9% Other link 12 0.4% 0.4% N/A (site doesn't send traffic/link broken) 2 0.1% 0.1% Total 2796 94.2% 100.0%

Driving traffic by outlet Source Number of Percentage of Number of Percentage of tweets tweets with tweets tweets without containing links links without links links The New York Times 387 99.0% 4 1.0% The Washington Post 656 98.8% 8 1.2% The Wall Street Journal 96 92.3% 8 7.7% USA Today 201 98.0% 4 2.0% The Blade (Toledo) 129 70.1% 55 29.9% The Arizona Republic 121 84.6% 22 15.4% The Huffington Post 410 98.8% 5 1.2% The Daily Caller 143 99.3% 1 .7% ABC News 279 88.3% 37 11.7% CNN 84 93.3% 6 6.7% MSNBC 30 90.9% 3 9.1% Fox News 31 64.6% 17 35.4% NPR 229 98.7% 3 1.3% Total 2796 94.2% 173 5.8%

Use of hashtags Source Number of Percentage of Percentage of tweets tweets Number of tweets containing containing tweets without without hashtags hashtags hashtags hashtags The New York Times 6 1.5% 385 98.5% The Washington Post 142 21.4% 522 78.6% The Wall Street 4 3.8% 100 96.2% Journal USA Today 19 9.3% 186 90.7% The Blade (Toledo) 81 44.0% 103 56.0% The Arizona Republic 56 39.2% 87 60.8% The Huffington Post 20 4.8% 395 95.2% The Daily Caller 82 56.9% 62 43.1% ABC News 63 19.9% 253 80.1% CNN 11 12.2% 79 87.8% MSNBC 2 6.1% 31 93.9% Fox News 24 50.0% 24 50.0% NPR 1 .4% 231 99.6%

REPORTER SAMPLE (Reporters with highest number of followers at each outlet, analyzed during week of February 14-20, 2011.)

Reporter use of Twitter for information-gathering Percentage of tweets Number of tweets Percentage of tweets Number of tweets that that were used for not used for not used for were used for information- information- information- information-gathering gathering gathering gathering 12 2.9% 407 97.1%

Top-followed reporters and retweets Number of tweets Percentage of tweets Number of tweets that Percentage of tweets that were not that were not were retweets that were retweets retweets retweets 45 10.7% 374 89.3%

Source of retweets Percentage of all Retweet source Number of retweets retweets Own news organization 4 1.0% Another news 6 organization 1.4% Other 20 4.8% Unclear 15 3.6% Total 374 89.3%

Information-gathering on Twitter by reporter

percentage of Percentage of tweets that Number of tweets that were Number of non- were not information- information- information information- Reporter gathering tweets gathering gathering tweets gathering David Pogue 0 0.0% 21 100% Arianna Huffington 2 3.8% 51 96.20% Steven Goff 3 3.0% 98 97.0% Kara Swisher 0 0.0% 98 100.0% Tucker Carlson 0 0.0% 5 100.0% George Stephanopoulos 0 0.0% 13 100.0% Whitney Matheson 3 15.8% 16 84.2% Jack Gray 0 0.0% 7 100.0% Rachel Maddow 0 0.0% 3 100.0% Megyn Kelly 0 0.0% 4 100.0% Ryan Autullo 0 0.0% 3 100.0% Paul Coro 1 1.6% 62 98.4% Scott Simon 3 10.3% 26 89.7% Total 12 2.9% 407 97.1%

Reporter use of Twitter to share personal anecdotes

Percentage of Number of tweets Percentage of Number of tweets that that were tweets that were tweets that were were not personal personal not personal personal Reporter anecdotes anecdotes anecdotes anecdotes David Pogue 12 57.1% 9 42.9% Arianna Huffington 33 62.3% 20 37.7% Steven Goff 2 2.0% 99 98.0% Kara Swisher 69 70.4% 29 29.6% Tucker Carlson 1 20.0% 4 80.0% George Stephanopoulos 1 7.7% 12 92.3% Whitney Matheson 16 84.2% 3 15.8% Jack Gray 5 71.4% 2 28.6% Rachel Maddow 0 .0% 3 100.0% Megyn Kelly 0 .0% 4 100.0% Ryan Autullo 2 66.7% 1 33.3% Paul Coro 8 12.7% 55 87.3% Scott Simon 15 51.7% 14 48.3% Total 164 39.1% 255 60.9%

Reporter use of Twitter for retweeting Percentage of Number of tweets Percentage of Number of tweets that that were tweets that were tweets that were were not Reporter retweets retweets not retweets retweets David Pogue 2 9.5% 19 90.5% Arianna Huffington 9 17.0% 44 83.0% Steven Goff 19 18.8% 82 81.2% Kara Swisher 0 .0% 98 100.0% Tucker Carlson 0 .0% 5 100.0% George Stephanopoulos 0 .0% 13 100.0% Whitney Matheson 1 5.3% 18 94.7% Jack Gray 0 .0% 7 100.0% Rachel Maddow 1 33.3% 2 66.7% Megyn Kelly 0 .0% 4 100.0% Ryan Autullo 1 33.3% 2 66.7% Paul Coro 10 15.9% 53 84.1% Scott Simon 2 6.9% 27 93.1% Total 45 10.7% 374 89.3% HEALTH REPORTER SAMPLE (Analyzed during week of February 14-20, 2011.)

Total tweets by health reporters Percentage of total health Reporter Number of tweets reporter tweets Tara Parker-Hope 15 5.8% Patricia Fitzgerald 5 1.9% Jennifer Larue Huget 19 7.4% Katherine Hobson 1 0.4% Richard Besser 43 16.7% Liz Szabo 80 31.0% Sanjay Gupta 3 1.2% Melissa Dahl 29 11.2% Manny Alvarez 26 10.1% Ken Alltucker 1 0.4% Scott Hensley 36 14.0% Total 258 100.0%

Health reporters and personal anecdotes on Twitter percentage of Number of tweets that Number of tweets Percentage of non- were not that were personal tweets that anecdote personal Reporter anecdotes were anecdotes tweets anecdotes Tara Parker-Hope 0 .0% 15 100.0% Patricia Fitzgerald 1 20.0% 4 80.0% Jennifer Larue Huget 2 10.5% 17 89.5% Katherine Hobson 0 .0% 1 100.0% Richard Besser 23 53.5% 20 46.5% Liz Szabo 17 21.3% 63 78.8% Sanjay Gupta 2 66.7% 1 33.3% Melissa Dahl 9 31.0% 20 69.0% Manny Alvarez 0 .0% 26 100.0% Ken Alltucker 0 .0% 1 100.0% Scott Hensley 18 50.0% 18 50.0% Total 72 27.9% 186 72.1%

Health reporters and information-gathering on Twitter

Percentage of Number of percentage of tweets that non- tweets that Number of were information were not information- information- gathering information- Reporter gathering tweets gathering tweets gathering Tara Parker-Hope 1 6.7% 14 93.3% Patricia Fitzgerald 1 20.0% 4 80.0% Jennifer Larue Huget 4 21.1% 15 78.9% Katherine Hobson 0 .0% 1 100.0% Richard Besser 5 11.6% 38 88.4% Liz Szabo 0 .0% 80 100.0% Sanjay Gupta 0 .0% 3 100.0% Melissa Dahl 3 10.3% 26 89.7% Manny Alvarez 1 3.8% 25 96.2% Ken Alltucker 0 .0% 1 100.0% Scott Hensley 0 .0% 36 100.0% Total 15 5.8% 243 94.2%

Health reporters and retweeting

Number of Percentage of Percentage of tweets that tweets that Number of tweets tweets that were not were not Reporter that were retweets were retweets retweets retweets Tara Parker-Hope 0 .0% 15 100.0% Patricia Fitzgerald 1 20.0% 4 80.0% Jennifer Larue Huget 6 31.6% 13 68.4% Katherine Hobson 1 100.0% 0 .0% Richard Besser 1 2.3% 42 97.7% Liz Szabo 24 30.0% 56 70.0% Sanjay Gupta 0 .0% 3 100.0% Melissa Dahl 15 51.7% 14 48.3% Manny Alvarez 1 3.8% 25 96.2% Ken Alltucker 0 .0% 1 100.0% Scott Hensley 7 19.4% 29 80.6% Total 56 21.7% 202 78.3%