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> The accounts they choose to follow are likely carefully calculated since they're aware it's visible and people look at these things. Aren't the replies and r

by danso 6y ago

> The accounts they choose to follow are likely carefully calculated since they're aware it's visible and people look at these things. Aren't the replies and retweets they make also carefully calculated?

moduspol 6y ago
Sure, but it’s a lot easier to make a list of accounts to follow that suggests you’re impartial or well-rounded. It’s a lot tougher to spend every day ensuring your replies and retweets do the same.
- danso 6y ago
  I'm a pretty big user of Twitter, including in the capacity of a journalist. But I'm highly skeptical of this reasoning. When I look at the Twitter profile of any given mainstream (e.g. ostensibly left-leaning) journalist, I'll find that I have dozens if not hundreds of mutual followers (e.g. "Followers you know"). If I look at the profile of an ostensibly right-leaning journalists (e.g. a Daily Caller reporter), the number of mutual followers is inevitably fewer [0]. I think you misestimate a few variables. For starters, journalists and most mainstream Twitter users are not inclined to doing gruntwork, such as curating a list of people to follow and then mute. Similarly, the use of Twitter lists, which also involves the manual gruntwork of curation, is very rare among the many personal accounts I follow. For 99% of everyday use (i.e. not specifically investigating someone's social media activity), journalists and mainstream users also lack the interest in analyzing a given user's followings list. Occasionally I see people mention FollowersAudit/BotOrNot. Can't remember the last time I've seen someone mention a purported political audit tool. In fact, I can't remember the last time I've seen someone mention tools like https://doesfollow.com/ https://doesfollow.com/. You also underestimate the perceived value of following-to-followers ratio. Almost all of the big name Twitter accounts (again, not just journalists) follow a relative handful of accounts versus followers count. It's widely perceived that a small accounts-followed number is a signal of prestige, or at least self-importance. Thus, an even lower incentive to pad that number in hopes of boosting a hard-to-perceive impartiality metric. Anyway, the proof should be in the pudding. Are there any notable accounts that obviously stuff their followings with people they politically dislike/hate, for the purpose of pretending to be non-partisan? Shouldn't we see this in the brand accounts, like @nytimes [1], which have a desire to be seen as fair and also have no obligation/expectation to actually engage via retweet/reply? [0] In this case, I don't think the reason is primarily caused by ideology; the number of right-leaning news outlets are far and few between, which reduces the potential of direct personal/professional ties. I find that the few former DCaller reporters who have moved to larger outlets and who I follow do not have a disparity in mutuals) [1] Here's a CSV dump of @nytimes ~900 followed accounts, which are almost all NYT employees: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sW_ZmgONfsAIy1IKsETJJA9RaCuGQEXSwFCfvzjiIAA/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sW_ZmgONfsAIy1IKsETJ...

by danso 6y ago

moduspol 6y ago

Sure, but it’s a lot easier to make a list of accounts to follow that suggests you’re impartial or well-rounded. It’s a lot tougher to spend every day ensuring your replies and retweets do the same.

danso 6y ago
I'm a pretty big user of Twitter, including in the capacity of a journalist. But I'm highly skeptical of this reasoning. When I look at the Twitter profile of any given mainstream (e.g. ostensibly left-leaning) journalist, I'll find that I have dozens if not hundreds of mutual followers (e.g. "Followers you know"). If I look at the profile of an ostensibly right-leaning journalists (e.g. a Daily Caller reporter), the number of mutual followers is inevitably fewer [0]. I think you misestimate a few variables. For starters, journalists and most mainstream Twitter users are not inclined to doing gruntwork, such as curating a list of people to follow and then mute. Similarly, the use of Twitter lists, which also involves the manual gruntwork of curation, is very rare among the many personal accounts I follow. For 99% of everyday use (i.e. not specifically investigating someone's social media activity), journalists and mainstream users also lack the interest in analyzing a given user's followings list. Occasionally I see people mention FollowersAudit/BotOrNot. Can't remember the last time I've seen someone mention a purported political audit tool. In fact, I can't remember the last time I've seen someone mention tools like https://doesfollow.com/ https://doesfollow.com/. You also underestimate the perceived value of following-to-followers ratio. Almost all of the big name Twitter accounts (again, not just journalists) follow a relative handful of accounts versus followers count. It's widely perceived that a small accounts-followed number is a signal of prestige, or at least self-importance. Thus, an even lower incentive to pad that number in hopes of boosting a hard-to-perceive impartiality metric. Anyway, the proof should be in the pudding. Are there any notable accounts that obviously stuff their followings with people they politically dislike/hate, for the purpose of pretending to be non-partisan? Shouldn't we see this in the brand accounts, like @nytimes [1], which have a desire to be seen as fair and also have no obligation/expectation to actually engage via retweet/reply? [0] In this case, I don't think the reason is primarily caused by ideology; the number of right-leaning news outlets are far and few between, which reduces the potential of direct personal/professional ties. I find that the few former DCaller reporters who have moved to larger outlets and who I follow do not have a disparity in mutuals) [1] Here's a CSV dump of @nytimes ~900 followed accounts, which are almost all NYT employees: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sW_ZmgONfsAIy1IKsETJJA9RaCuGQEXSwFCfvzjiIAA/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sW_ZmgONfsAIy1IKsETJ...