News organizations use Twitter mostly to promote their own stories. Sharing of other content and engagement with readers is “rare,” according to a new study.  The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and The George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs collaborated on a report that examined 3,600 tweets from 13 news organizations for the week of Feb. 14-20. The analysis found that 93% of the tweets contained links to the organization’s own site. Only 6% of the tweets contained no link, only 1% linked to another news site and another 1% linked to non-news content.  While Twitter is often seen as a medium for leveling the walls between journalists and their readers, the report found it’s primarily used as a tool for publicizing stories. Only 2% of the tweets analyzed during the period were designed to cull information from readers. Fox News was a notable exception — 21% of its tweets asked for readers’ input.  The same held true for journalists who manned their own Twitter accounts: Just 3% used their personal Twitter feeds to solicit information from readers.  The researchers likened the news organizations’ use of Twitter to the early days of the web: “Initially, news organizations, worried about losing audience, rarely linked to content outside their own web domain,” the authors wrote. “Now, the idea is that being a service — of providing users with what they are looking for even if it comes from someone else — carries more weight. It bears watching whether Twitter use for mainstream news organizations evolves in this same way.”  The report also showed strong growth for Twitter from November 2010 until June 2011. During that time, the percentage of “online Americans” using the micro-blogging platform rose from 8% to 13%, a growth of 63%.  During a rash of riots in the Middle East and North Africa, Twitter played a role in protesters' fight for democracy. But a crass tweet from  stands out as a hallmark of insensitivity.  In what was called "kind of a jerk move," teen idol Justin Bieber  of an invasive fan as if it were his own. Said fan's phone was ringing off the hook for hours and received at least 26,000 text messages.  are a whole thing unto themselves these days, but the trend probably started with this sweet tweet.  Tweets from space are all the rage. The landmark discovery of ice on Mars caused quite the stir on Twitter.  Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's first tweet -- the inauspicious blurb that started it all back in 2006.  ... and Oprah's First Tweet  Tweets From Space: Now In Real-Time!  Without knowing exactly what was going on, Twitter user @ReallyVirtual started tweeting about  in his town. The town happened to be Abbottabad, and the crash happened to be one event in the raid that led to Osama bin Laden's death.  Image courtesy of Flickr, west.m
A study found that news organizations mostly use Twitter as a way to publicize stories, rather than as a medium for two-way-communication.