Journalists like twitter because it allows them to “build a personal brand” i.e. they are less beholden to the publication/broadcaster which they are employed. It allows them a direct line to their audience to promote their work and news orgs see value in employing journalists with large follower counts. I’ve worked for a couple of large news orgs over the years and just by virtue of including them in my Twitter bio And being followed by journo friends my follower count increased to the high hundred/ low thousands— I barely tweet at all.

A side effect of all this is that journalists (and others with high follower counts) have a very distorted idea of how Twitter works and feels for most people and tend to ascribe more importance to it than perhaps it deserves. Thing is it’s kind of a self fulfilling prophecy.

Ps. I haven’t actually read the linked article so apologies if I’m repeating its contents