How many people come to Twitter for news? As it turns out, a LOT

People come to Twitter for many reasons. As it turns out, one of the biggest is to stay informed about current events.

Whether it’s politics, world & local news, entertainment, sports, technology, or health & wellness, Twitter has become home to some of the most relevant conversations about news and current events happening around the world.

Why is this important information to know? First, it helps us understand and better serve people’s interests. Second, it reinforces the importance of the work we’re doing to address misinformation, add helpful context to Tweets, and keep people better informed about the news they consume on Twitter.

To help give you visibility into some of these findings, we’ve compiled learnings from studies Twitter has performed with YouGov and Sparkler, as well as internal Twitter data and third party research from groups like YouGov and Pew Research. Unless otherwise noted, these studies and surveys have been conducted with respondents in the US. 

Read on to learn more about the ways people engage with current events on Twitter.

People engage regularly with news on Twitter 

People on Twitter are avid news consumers. Many of them are interested in politics and current events, and they regularly Tweet about it.

• 94% of people on Twitter express interest in current events
• 85% of people on Twitter watch, read, or listen to the news at least once a day
• 83% of people on Twitter Tweet about news
• 3 in 4 people who come to Twitter for news do so at least once a day
• 55% of people on Twitter get their news from Twitter, more than other social media platforms
• 75% of people who come to Twitter for news follow news about politics and current events on Twitter
• In the first 6.5 months of 2022, there were 4.6B Tweets about news in the US (#1) and 10.4B Tweets about news globally (#2)

Twitter connects people with news outlets and journalists

In addition to helping people learn about and share current events, Twitter facilitates the discovery of news outlets and journalists. People regularly follow news-related Twitter accounts, and more than 80% of young journalists rely on Twitter for their jobs.

• 62% of Twitter news consumers say “Twitter helps me find new news outlets to follow”
• 60% of people on Twitter say they have followed an account related to US national news in in the past year
• 55% of people on Twitter say they have followed an account related to local news in in the past year
• 50% of people on Twitter say they have followed an account related to international news in in the past year
• 50% of people on Twitter say they have followed a journalist on social media in in the past year
• 83% of young journalists (ages 18-29) say Twitter is the social media site they use most or second most in their job

Stay informed

Keep your eyes here for more information, or follow @TwitterNews for best practices and innovative uses of Twitter by journalists and newsrooms.

Sources

Twitter x YouGov, December 2021. US, n = 1257
Pew Research, How Americans Tweet about the news, June-Aug 2021, US, n = 620
Twitter x Sparkler via Twitter Insiders, July 2022, US, n = 286
Pew Research, News Consumption x Social Media in 2021, July-Aug 2021, US, n = 11,178
Twitter x Sparkler via Twitter Insiders, May 2022, US, n = 286
Internal Twitter Data, 1/1-7/13/22, global and US. Top 50 disaggregated topics were aggregated based on overarching topic
Twitter x Sparkler via Twitter Insiders, May 2022, US, n = 548.
YouGov Profiles, December 2021, US
Twitter Insiders, December 2021, US, n = 226
Pew Research, Feb-March 2022, US Journalists, n = 11,889