This piece from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism presents the findings of a study of how different types of social media sites are used by visitors. These include Twitter, YouTube, and general blogging tools hosted in various locations. What is particularly interesting is that each of the tools did in fact seemed to be used in very different ways. I do have to admit that I was not all that surprised that this was the case since the resulting uses seemed to be reflective of what the tools were designed for and how they perform.
For example, Twitter seemed much more focused on technology-topics and blogs much more focused on political issues. YouTube seems to work more on the idea of mob-mentality with a high level of interest directed by friends and loved ones pointing out videos that people should check out. While all three cases tended to cover stories and move on within a week, blogs seemed to be tied closely to traditional news sources when starting to cover a topic, though often expanding on the topic with commentary. The research seemed to show that both conservative and liberal viewpoints were well represented in all three areas.
The center's News Media Index is updated each week with more up-to-date research. For more information, feel free to check it out.
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