The Twitter users tend to use the service heavily - several times a day - and their use of the network is increasing how much news they consume.

“Almost all Twitter users are also consumers of other forms of news media,” a statement by the American Press Institute read.

While Twitter users follow news in general on the service, and sometimes do so just as a way of passing time, they act differently when they are following breaking news.

They become more participatory - commenting, posting and sharing at moments when events are moving fastest.

“All of these offer signals for how news publishers can make more effective use of social networks in general and Twitter in particular,” the results showed.

Nearly 94 percent of Twitter news users get their news either through scrolling their timelines or browsing tweets of those they follow.

Other features are used far less often. For instance, just 34 percent of Twitter news users say they get news from trending topics and 30 percent use search.

About 82 percent of Twitter users access the platform on their phones and many access Twitter across multiple devices.

The findings come at time when Twitter is increasing its emphasis on news and making tweaks that may affect publishers’ strategies, the authors concluded.