2023/07/11 by Erwan Dujeancourt, Marcel Garz · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Digital Marketing and Social Media #Media Studies and Communication #Social Media and Politics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/01972243.2023.2230471
openalex publication_date 2023/07/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this article, we investigate how Twitter’s switch from a reverse-chronological timeline to algorithmic content selection in March 2016 influenced user engagement with tweets published by German newspapers. To mitigate concerns about omitted variables, we use the Facebook postings of these newspapers as a counterfactual. We find that the number of likes increased by 20% and the number of retweets by 15% within a span of 30 days after the switch. Importantly, our results indicate a rich-get-richer effect, implying that initially more popular outlets and news topics benefited the most. User engagement also increased more for sensationalist content than quality news stories.