Just days before Twitter's debut on Wall Street, Pew Research Center released a report outlining the role of news on Twitter and the demographic of Twitter news consumers.The key finding: Twitter users who consumer news on the social network tend to be
young, educated, and using a mobile device to access the news.
The report comes shortly after Pew's release of a detailed analysis of the role of news on Facebook, which finds Facebook news consumers to be higher in number, but not age.
Of those who receive news on Facebook, 34% are between the age of 18-29 year old. Almost half of Twitter news consumers - 45% - are young.
Pew's Twitter News Consumers: Young, Mobile and Education goes on to note that while attracting a highly educated audience, with four in ten Twitter news consumers having received a bachelor's degree, Twitter conversations do not represent public sentiment.
"During the 2012 presidential race, Republican candidate Ron Paul easily won the Twitter primary — 55% of the conversation about him was positive, with only 15% negative. Voters rendered a very different verdict," the report notes, referencing a previous Pew study on Twitter Reaction to Events.
The main purpose of Twitter is to spread breaking news.