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Most Influential Tweeters: Twitter's 20 Most Influential News Accounts (PHOTOS)

Huffington Post     First Posted: 9/10/10 11:47 AM ET   Updated: 5/25/11 06:35 PM ET

Although Lady Gaga is the most-followed person on Twitter, she is not considered the "most influential" member of the Twitterati.

Research conducted in 2009 by Daniel Romero, Wojciech Galuba, Sitaram Asur, and Bernardo A. Huberman at the Social Computing Lab of HP Labs ranks Twitter's most influential news-media accounts by how many followers each account has and how engaged those followers are. New Scientist reported the findings, which show that the most influential Twitter feeds maintain followers who frequently retweet content. In addition, Gizmodo notes, "sites that are able to influence passive users to retweet more often than they normally do get a corresponding ranking bump."

A list of the most influential news-media feeds contains some surprising results. For instance, the New York Times (2,502,914 followers) sits at #22, while photojournalism blog The Big Picture (23,000 followers) enjoys the #3 spot.

Below, see the top 20 news media Twitter feeds:

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To see the full list of the 100 most influential Twitter feeds, click here.

Note: An earlier version of this post attributed the story to Cornell University; it was actually conducted by the Social Computing Lab of HP Labs, and has been edited to reflect that point.

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Although Lady Gaga is the most-followed person on Twitter, she is not considered the "most influential" member of the Twitterati. Research conducted in 2009 by Daniel Romero, Wojciech Galuba, Sitara...
Although Lady Gaga is the most-followed person on Twitter, she is not considered the "most influential" member of the Twitterati. Research conducted in 2009 by Daniel Romero, Wojciech Galuba, Sitara...
 
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01:42 AM on 09/14/2010
Soon twitter won't just be the medium or the messenger. It will be the source!

The Onion may not have the highest numbers, but between street cred and numbers they are clearly #1

http://www­.americanp­rogress.or­g/issues/2­009/05/ta0­52109.html
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07:55 PM on 09/12/2010
The Onion at #4?

CNN and CNNBRK are listed seperately­.

I *still* don't feel the appeal of Twitter or Facebook. I think I understand the appeal - but I don't feel it for myself. Perhaps if I were a hyper-conn­ected (iPhone) freak, I'd use it more (and get nothing done in the rest of my life), but I can't afford the $ or the time to tweet (twit?) regularily­. Besides, my life is basically dull and uninterest­ing and I'd rather pontificat­e here than elsewhere.
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Lisa Ellwood
Nanticoke/Lenni Lemape Native American.
10:28 AM on 09/12/2010
Invluencia­l? Really?

It's very disturbing what passes for *influenci­al* *news* these days...
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12:46 AM on 09/12/2010
Here is a photo from ADN online of the Sarah/Beck­/Miller Event of today. Another fail! They don't mention the crowd size in the article, but there was suppose to be 4,000 tickets available.

http://med­ia.adn.com­/smedia/20­10/09/11/1­8/911Remem­ber037.804­74.origina­l.standalo­ne.prod_af­filiate.7.­jpg

Ya think the 15 mins is over? The ADN didn't even mention the content of Becks speech. Must have been lovely. ROFLMAO!
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TheBlondeRaven
04:36 PM on 09/11/2010
I don't think any of those Twitter accounts stand out as especially influentia­l. Their web sites stand out, but their twitter account is usually go to page xyz to read this and that. That's not influence. Influence is affecting people through 140 words.
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Sam Engwall
10:48 AM on 09/11/2010
People Magazine is considered a "news account"?
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LeslieM
11:19 PM on 09/10/2010
If these are the most influentia­l twitter accounts, would the "media" please stop following and reporting on the tweets and facebook posts of a former Alaskan governor already?
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07:56 PM on 09/12/2010
Oh please don't discourage "the media" from getting spoofed by The Onion again!
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melton244
10:53 PM on 09/10/2010
News media being intelligen­t, isn't that an oxymor0n?
06:56 PM on 09/10/2010
thank god
Is thought this was going to say Ashton Kutcher was the most influentia­l
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clsmithj
Wanna Raise Some Hell
07:39 PM on 09/10/2010
why did you think that?
07:42 PM on 09/10/2010
he had that contest going last year and was begging people to follow him on twitter so he could claim he had more followers than anyone on twitter
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frank day
More Liberals Equals More Liberty
06:34 PM on 09/10/2010
When I want the real story,
I turn to the ' ONION' for the hard hitting news.

I do enjoy Fox though, for its humor.
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Andrew FingerlickingGree
03:25 PM on 09/10/2010
The Onion a "News" Account? Hmmm, I guess considerin­g Faux is the number on cable "news".
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Sam Engwall
10:51 AM on 09/11/2010
I'd argue that there is a lot of truth in the awesomely executed irony created by the Onion.
02:11 PM on 09/10/2010
No fox, but with their age demographi­c that is to be expected.
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quivira
01:31 PM on 09/10/2010
No Ashton?
06:56 PM on 09/10/2010
ha - I said the same thing