Facebook to Push for Better Journalism
January 11 2017 - 10:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Deepa Seetharaman
Facebook Inc. said it will advocate for what it determines is
good journalism and forge closer ties with news organizations, a
sign of it taking a more active role in managing the content on its
site.
The social network outlined a new initiative Wednesday that
includes investing in research and projects that promote "news
literacy," building on its efforts in recent months to stamp out
misinformation on the main news feed. Facebook also promised to
include publishers earlier in its product-development process and
help them generate revenue from videos posted on Facebook.
The goal of the "Facebook Journalism Project" is to give users
"information that you can trust," said Fidji Simo, director of
product for Facebook. "We care about it from the standpoint that
people want to be informed."
Facebook has long been reluctant to portray itself as a media
company, instead calling itself a neutral-technology platform.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said he is wary of Facebook
becoming "arbiters of truth." Ms. Simo echoed that sentiment,
saying Facebook's goal isn't to tell people what they should and
shouldn't read.
Still, in the past couple of months, Mr. Zuckerberg has
acknowledged that Facebook shoulders some responsibility for how
its technology is used by its 1.8 billion monthly users. About 44%
of Americans get at least some of their news from Facebook,
according to a survey by Pew Research conducted last year.
The changes come in the wake of criticism that Facebook's news
feed, by design, puts legitimate and fake news on equal footing,
hurting public discourse during the U.S. presidential campaign. In
December, Facebook said it would aim to curb fake news through
partnerships with fact-checking organizations and tweaks to its
algorithm.
Facebook is now building on that work with the journalism
initiative. One aspect of the program is helping users make what
Facebook calls "smart choices" about the news they read both on and
off the platform.
The company will work with nonprofit News Literacy Project to
produce a public service ad campaign about the importance of "news
literacy" and assess research areas that Facebook can finance or
provide data for, Ms. Simo said. Longer-term, Facebook plans to
provide financial grants to news organizations pursuing projects
that promote this idea.
"This is a commitment to...looking at ways to inform people
better, but we don't have the specifics," Ms. Simo said.
Media companies have a complicated relationship with Facebook.
The social-media giant is home to the largest pool of readers in
the world, giving publishers access to billions of potential new
readers. But its dominance in digital ads is at odds with
publishers, who are seeing their own revenues decline as
advertisers flock to Facebook.
On Wednesday, Facebook said it would allow publishers to exert
influence on Facebook products when they are still being conceived
by the development teams in hopes of building content that
publishers and users will adopt.
This month, for example, engineers for Facebook and the
Germany's leading daily tabloid, Bild, will test a way to offer
free trial subscriptions to readers from within Instant Articles,
fast-loading articles on Facebook's mobile app. Another area
Facebook is studying is how to make local news easier to find on
Facebook, and Ms. Simo said the company is looking for
collaborators.
Still, Facebook allying itself with some established media
companies and taking a stand for news literacy could stoke
concerns, often voiced by conservatives, about liberal bias among
Facebook employees and the news promoted by the site.
Ms. Simo said the company is looking for ways to help publishers
make money from the content they post on Facebook, especially
video. Among other things, Facebook is going to introduce ad breaks
within regular videos and give publishers a cut of the proceeds,
she added.
Some of that work will fall to Campbell Brown, the former CNN
and NBC anchor Facebook hired last week to run news partnerships.
She will help Facebook executives, including Ms. Simo, forge deeper
relationships with major publishers.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 11, 2017 10:14 ET (15:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024