The Left doesn’t seem interested in hearing what the right has to say on social media. Conservatives, on the other hand, seem eager to hear from people with opposing views.
A review of data in a new study by StatSocial indicates conservatives on Twitter are more likely to follow liberal partisans and reporters at left-of-center news organizations than their counterparts on the Left are to follow right-leaning figures.
“People on the Left are more insular,” Michael Hussey, the analytics group’s CEO, told the Washington Examiner media desk. “They’re less interested in others’ opinions. If that’s what the data is showing, than I think that case can be made.”
Hussey told the Examiner that StatSocial categorized left and right-leaning Twitter users by examining user data, including what social media users like, what their interests are and what they follow.
The group found that left-leaning Twitter users not only outnumber conservatives, but that they are also interested in hearing only from like-minded media figures, while right-leaning users hear from both sides.
Many liberal partisans, including MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Vox’s Matt Yglesias and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, boast of sizable conservative followings. Sixty-one percent of Hayes’ following is left-leaning, while 38 percent is right. Elsewhere, Yglesias has a follower count that’s 57 percent left and 42 percent right, while Brazile has a following that’s 66 percent leaning left and 33 percent in the other direction, according to the report, which also revealed which reporters and commentators on social media are most likely to influence national debates.
For several down-the-middle journalists, the follower percentages are much closer — though conservative followers often outnumber liberal followers.
CNN’s Jake Tapper’s following is 40 percent left-leaning and 59 percent right-leaning. Meanwhile, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl’s breakdown is 43-56 percent, while CBS News’ Mark Knoller’s following is 46-53 percent.
However, when it comes to media figures associated with conservatism, the follower percentages become dramatically lopsided.
Twitter followings for straight news personalities at Fox News — including Bret Baier, Brit Hume, Ed Henry and Greta Van Susteren — consist almost entirely of conservatives.
Baier’s follower breakdown is 75 percent right-leaning, while only 24 percent leans to the left, though Baier is widely acclaimed as a straight shooter whose reporting leans neither left nor right. Similarly, Hume’s left-right percentages are 77-22, while Henry’s are 29-70 and Van Susteren’s are 24-75. Those are far more lopsided than the figures for another straight-news journalist who is not associated with conservatives — NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, whose percentages are 48-52.
Even Fox News’ left-leaning contributors, including Juan Williams and Kirsten Powers, have followings that lean heavily to the right. Liberals make up only 27 percent of Williams’ total following and only 25 percent of Powers’.
For openly partisan conservatives, the difference in followers is even more extreme.
A full 80 percent of Charles Krauthammer’s followers are right-leaning, while only 20 percent are identified as being on the left. Similarly, TheBlaze’s Dana Loesch has a following that is 79 percent right-leaning, with only 20 percent leaning in the other direction. For RedState’s Erick Erickson, it’s 70 percent right-leaning and 20 percent left-leaning. For National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, the percentages are 73-26.
There are some important exceptions to the pattern.
MSNBC’s Rachael Maddow, for example, has a following that is 76 percent left-leaning and only 23 percent leaning to the right.
Similarly, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington has a following that’s 81 percent on the left and only 18 percent on the right.
Same for New York Times economist Paul Krugman. The Nobel laureate draws 74 percent of his followers from the left, and only 25 percent from the right.
Separate studies of social media behavior show that users identified as “consistent liberals” are more likely to unfollow or “unfriend” someone over a political disagreement than are users identified as being conservatives.
(h/t: @JohnEkdahl)
