Today FM’s Last Word Presenter, Matt Cooper has been named the most influential Irish journalist on Twitter as measured by the latest #murraytweetindex.
The #murraytweetindex, compiled by communications consultancy Murray, ranks journalists across six parameters - measuring popularity, quality of engagement and level of activity.
Sunday World Sports journalist, Kevin Palmer took 2nd place with Newstalk’s George Hook in 3rd.
The wide reach of journalists on Twitter is indicated by data showing that the Top 100 on the index have over 2.6m followers, over six times the combined circulation of daily newspapers in Ireland and up 13% from 2.3m in 2015.
The number of journalists reviewed more than doubled this year to over 700 and the life time total number of tweets these journalists have generated on the platform is over 7m.
RTE’s US correspondent Caitriona Perry topped the news category, pushing last year’s winner Simon Carswell from the Irish Times into 2nd place.
Independent News & Media’s Group Business Editor, Dearbhail McDonald took over as the top business reporter, closely followed by RTE Business Editor, David Murphy. Today FM’s Gavan Reilly topped the political category for the third year in a row followed by the Irish Times’ Harry McGee and Irish Independent’s Kevin Doyle.
Furthermore, David McWilliams is the top columnist, Adrian Weckler top for technology and the Sun’s Ken Sweeney took over from TV3’s Lisa Cannon as number one in the entertainment category. A new category introduced this year covered crime reporters and was topped by the Irish Daily Star’s Mick O’Toole.
Director at Murray, Doug Keatinge says, "The reach of journalists on Twitter continues to surge with the top 100 journalists listed having a combined 2.6m followers, up 13% on the previous year, which is an audience six times bigger than total daily circulation of newspapers in Ireland. Even though as a business Twitter faces growth challenges, it continues to provide an important channel for journalists to engage with readers and alert them to new content and breaking stories."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
