WASHINGTON: Among all social networking platforms, micro-blogging site Twitter is the top source for users when it comes to breaking news, a new online survey of more than 4,700 social media users has revealed.

Nearly nine in 10 Twitter (86 percent) users in the survey said they use Twitter for news, and the vast majority of those (74 percent) do so daily.

“Roughly the same number of people reported that they use Twitter to be alerted to breaking news (40 percent) as to keep up with the news generally (39 percent),” said the survey conducted by the American Press Institute and Twitter in collaboration with research company called DB5.

Twitter users tend to be heavier news consumers than other social media users.

“News, indeed, is one of the primary activities that they engage in on the network. Twitter users also tend to be younger than social media users in general,” the findings revealed.

Three-quarters of Twitter news users follow individual journalists, writers and commentators (73 percent) and nearly two-thirds follow institutional accounts (62 percent).

Twitter users also are very likely to discover new journalists and writers and consequently follow their work, often on other platforms beyond Twitter, the survey indicated.

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