Report: News dead last in types of tweets

A new report says that news-related tweets rank last among the types of messages Twitter users send over the microblogging site.

A survey conducted by Pear Analytics found that only 3.6% of all tweets are about the news. On the other hand, just over 40% of tweets convey “pointless babble” (i.e. “I’m going to the gym”). Pear based the study on a collection of 2,000 English language tweets over the course of two weeks.

“We thought the News category would have more weight than dead last, since this seems to be contrary to Twitter’s new position of being the premier source of news and events,” said the report’s release.

The survey also found that news tweets come through most frequently at around 3pm on Tuesdays.