CollegeStats.org, a New York-based research group, has a revelation about Fox News — which remains the most watched network in the entire cable realm, according to ongoing Nielsen Media Research numbers. But it is also very popular among youthful denizens of the Twitterverse.
“Fox News is the No. 1 most shared publisher near college campuses, accounting for over 13 percent of all the Twitter traffic examined,” the group said in a new analysis released Tuesday, noting that the network got a particularly positive reaction in Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
The “Sharing the News” study analyzed 550,000 recent tweets which centered on news organizations and publishers, and were produced within a one-mile radius of college campuses around the nation. It is a specialized finding but an important one. Young news consumers are a much coveted audience, and Fox appears to have attracted quite a few.
“While some might assume that the South would have a higher level of affection for the often conservatively leaning Fox News, regions like the West South Central, East South Central, and South Atlantic came in behind some more northern areas like the Mid-Atlantic and East North Central. Western regions had the least positive sentiment toward Fox News in their tweets — specifically the Pacific and Mountain areas,” the study said.
How did other news organization fare? In terms of popularity with the campus tweeters, Time was runner-up in second place, followed by Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, CBS News, USA Today, NBC, Reuters and the New York Post, to round out the top 10.
The researchers also concluded that college students are more “politically engaged” than they have been in decades.
Who tweeted the most? The analysis found that students at Robert Morris University composed and sent the most tweets, followed by students at Stevens Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Angelo State University, Framingham State University, University of Redlands, Wilkes University, California State University, Concord University and Lindenwood University.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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