Twitter is now well established with media movers and shakers in the UK, who are using it to share links, stories and opinions.
We at Portland wanted to better understand who are the most influencial tweeters among the ranks of journalists and media outlets who are active on Twitter and find out which stories were grabbing their attention.
So, in conjunction with Tweetminster, we are launching the first ever ‘Newstweet Index’, an innovative report and infographic, which will be updated and published each quarter. The inaugural index is below.
Our new index assesses more than 330,000 current affairs tweets from journalists, newspapers and TV news channels over the past three months to reveal:
• the top 50 media tweeters
• which publication is dominating Twitter
• which stories have been most heavily covered in the media Twittersphere overall and by each media outlet
The first edition, which covers July, August and September, shows that The Guardian is the top media outlet with more than 100,000 tweets. The ranking of top UK media tweeters is topped by @fieldproducer – Neal Mann, Digital News Editor at Sky News.
Analysis of the topics covered by each outlet shows that the Guardian rode to the top of the chart through its prominent coverage of the hacking scandal, and the implications for Rupert Murdoch, while the BBC – which came second – gave more prominence to the war in Libya than to phone hacking.
Portland has worked with Tweetminster to develop the Newstweet Index and every quarter all tweets posted by UK news publications and journalists will be analysed. As well as providing regular insight into who is saying what and with what level of impact, the Newstweet Index will give a rolling picture of the changes and evolution of the UK media twittersphere as new stories develop, outlets compete and Twitter usage evolves.
Tim Allan, Managing Director of Portland, said:
“The media is an ever-changing beast, and Twitter is fundamentally changing the way that stories break, spread and develop. Twitter has allowed viewers and readers to absorb news through a much more direct relationship with journalists, and many figures who are normally off-camera have become prominent. We have developed this Index in order to give the first proper insight into who the movers and shakers are among media tweeters, what they are discussing and how they interact.”
Alberto Nardelli, Co-founder and CEO of Tweetminser, said:
” The Index will allow us to track and study the way in which the media are using Twitter, and experiment with new ways of analysing trends within media. We have seen massive uptake among journalists, and just as in politics Twitter is changing how people work and how they’re viewed. This is a window into the development of a totally new aspect of the media, which should be of interest to technology watchers, journalists and PRs alike.”
In terms of methodology, the Newstweet Index was compiled as follows:
- We analysed over 300, 000 tweets by UK media (available at @tweetminster/lists)
- This gives us data on activity (number of tweets), trends and sources
- We then looked at the number of times accounts were mentioned and retweeted on Twitter during the last three months to compile the top 50
