The 100 most influential news media Twitter accounts

Undoubtedly, the nature of news is changing with the advent and immense popularity of social media. Media is painfully aware it needs to be involved with the new social order to keep audiences engaged.

Social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, provide people with additional channels to not only get news about the world, but to involve their community and immediate sphere of influence. So social media enhances mainstream news by taking it to additional channels, but also fills a gap that mainstream news outlets are unable to fill.

Daniel Romero, a Ph.D Candidate at Cornell University in the Center for Applied Mathematics, asks the question: Are news operations as influential in social media as they are in mainstream media? Are they as influential as they are assumed to be in the offline world? Who are the most influential ones?

Romero answers these questions by using a study by HP Labs’ Social Computing Lab which attempts to measure influence on Twitter.

Using the HP Labs’ methodology, Romero builds a list of the “100 most influential news media accounts” (Seen below). Romero also makes a similar observation to that of the original study: There is a weak link between popularity and influence.

In many respects, it’s not rocket science. We’ve known for years in the offline world that a niche newspaper like the Mail & Guardian may have more or at least as much influence as a massively read tabloid like the Daily Sun or a popular broadsheet like the Sunday Times. A newspaper like the Mail & Guardian has but a fraction of the readership, but this is not too relevant in determining the paper’s influence in society.

And so we see the trend on Twitter: Having a large number of followers does not imply having influence. Moreover, not having a large number of followers does not mean lack of influence.

Romero cites an interesting US example: @bigpicture, a photo blog for the Boston Globe has a mere 23K followers, but it is the third-most influential account on the list of the Top 100. After taking a look at some of the very high quality photographs tweeted by this account it becomes clear why people are willing to retweet them and why this account has so much influence.

So here, below, is the “100 most influential news media Twitter accounts”. The study is fairly US-centric, with some international additions, but demonstrates some interesting insights. The data includes all tweets containing a URL from June 15th through July 22nd of 2009.

Number	@name	Name	Followers	Influence Rank
1	@mashable	Pete Cashmore	2037840	59
2	@cnnbrk	CNN Breaking News	3224475	71
3	@big_picture	The Big Picture	23666	92
4	@theonion	The Onion	2289939	116
5	@time	TIME.com	2111832	143
6	@breakingnews	Breaking News	1795976	147
7	@bbcbreaking	BBC Breaking News	509756	168
8	@espn	ESPN	572577	187
9	@harvardbiz	Harvard Business Rev	219039	227
10	@gizmodo	Gizmodo	111025	237
11	@techcrunch	TechCrunch	1402254	319
12	@wired	Wired	547187	322
13	@wsj	Wall Street Journal	366133	358
14	@smashingmag	Smashing Magazine	224333	360
15	@pitchforkmedia	Pitchfork	1494896	384
16	@rollingstone	Rolling Stone	133999	436
17	@whitehouse	The White House	1794544	448
18	@cnn	CNN	1196719	473
19	@tweetmeme	TweetMeme	52386	515
20	@peoplemag	People magazine	2099081	565
21	@natgeosociety	National Geographic	274851	603
22	@nytimes	The New York Times	2502914	705
23	@lifehacker	Lifehacker	62302	708
24	@foxnews	Fox News	260081	710
25	@waitwait	waitwait	32895	824
26	@newsweek	Newsweek	1250884	844
27	@huffingtonpost	Huffington Post	632555	849
28	@newscientist	New Scientist	144355	852
29	@mental_floss	Mental Floss	68975	874
30	@theeconomist	The Economist	311109	902
31	@emarketer	eMarketer	30235	906
32	@engadget	Engadget	135418	999
33	@cracked	Cracked.com	110611	1037
34	@slate	Slate	71091	1040
35	@bbcclick	BBC Click	1749470	1041
36	@fastcompany	Fast Company	148292	1056
37	@reuters	Reuters Top News	194429	1119
38	@incmagazine	Inc. Magazine	109256	1143
39	@eonline	E! Online	2271026	1227
40	@rww	Richard MacManus	1037907	1232
41	@gdgt	gdgt	20556	1315
42	@instyle	InStyle	1716786	1330
43	@mckquarterly	McKinsey Quarterly	90981	1354
44	@enews	E! News	279737	1540
45	@nprnews	NPR News	270561	1572
46	@usatoday	USA TODAY Top News	62790	1628
47	@mtv	MTV	648014	1714
48	@freakonomics	freakonomics	124751	1784
49	@boingboing	Boing Boing	48649	1811
50	@billboarddotcom	Billboard.com	63766	1818
51	@empiremagazine	Empire Magazine	33335	1905
52	@todayshow	The Today Show	620413	1927
53	@good	GOOD	414956	2003
54	@gawker	Gawker	37980	2027
55	@msnbc_breaking	msnbc Breaking News	59375	2088
56	@cbsnews	CBS News	1575638	2090
57	@guardiantech	Guardian Tech	1592067	2139
58	@usweekly	Us Weekly	228728	2233
59	@life	LIFE.com	1270303	2277
60	@sciam	Scientific American	88336	2373
61	@pastemagazine	Paste Magazine	64642	2379
62	@drudge_report	Drudge Report	100558	2468
63	@parisreview	The Paris Review	22127	2599
64	@latimes	Los Angeles Times	71287	2625
65	@telegraphnews	Daily Telegraph News	17325	2629
66	@abc7	ABC7 Eyewitness News	36343	2638
67	@arstechnica	Ars Technica	82051	2692
68	@cnnmoney	CNNMoney.com	219552	2777
69	@nprpolitics	NPR Politics	1801871	2882
70	@nytimesphoto	New York Times Photo	79443	2927
71	@nybooks	NY Review of Books	89827	2966
72	@nielsenwire	Nielsen Wire	13840	2994
73	@io9	io9	12152	3023
74	@sciencechannel	Science Channel	82514	3064
75	@usabreakingnews	USA Breaking News	13987	3120
76	@vanityfairmag	VANITY FAIR	76282	3182
77	@cw_network	CW Network	70031	3183
78	@bbcworld	BBC World News	262857	3202
79	@abc	ABCNews.com	1119958	3411
80	@themoment	The Moment	1580569	3413
81	@socialmedia2day	Social Media Today	34516	3510
82	@slashdot	Slashdot	29011	3527
83	@washingtonpost	The Washington Post	149617	3636
84	@tpmmedia	Talking Points Memo	15438	3678
85	@msnbc	msnbc.com	41155	3696
86	@wnycradiolab	Radiolab	9591	3776
87	@cnnlive	CNN Live	39260	3793
88	@davos	World Economic Forum	1508772	3891
89	@planetmoney	NPR’s Planet Money	81309	3965
90	@cnetnews	CNET News.com	75730	3981
91	@politico	POLITICO	83729	4048
92	@tvnewser	TVNewser	12301	4427
93	@guardiannews	The Guardian	75198	4665
94	@yahoonews	Yahoo! News	37154	4668
95	@seedmag	Seed Magazine	9898	4696
96	@tvguide	TV Guide	586240	4757
97	@travlandleisure	Travel + Leisure	84029	4767
98	@newyorkpost	New York Post	43334	4790
99	@discovermag	DISCOVER Magazine	71913	4816
100	@sciencenewsorg	Science News	75665	4888

 

• Follow Daniel Romero on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DanielMRomero
• More about this study on the Cornell site
• Article sourced from the Silicon Valley Watcher