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How Facebook Stole the News Business

posted by Fnord666 on Monday February 05 2018, @12:55AM   
from the the-emacs-of-the-internet dept.

canopic jug writes:

Big news outlets stupidly sold their soul to Facebook. Desperate for the referral traffic Facebook dangled, they spent the past few years jumping through its hoops only to be cut out of the equation. Instead of developing an owned audience of homepage visitors and newsletter subscribers, they let Facebook brainwash readers into thinking it was their source of information.

Now Facebook is pushing into local news, but publishers should be wary of making the same crooked deal. It might provide more exposure and traffic for smaller outlets today, but it could teach users they only need to visit Facebook for local news in the future. Here's how Facebook retrained us over the past 12 years to drain the dollars out of news.

Source : How Facebook stole the news business

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Original Submission

• Re:mind, boggled at the implications Re:mind, boggled at the implications (Score: 5, Insightful) by Apparition on Monday February 05 2018, @01:21AM (1 child)

  by Apparition (6835) on Monday February 05 2018, @01:21AM (#633093) Journal

  There's been studies shown that most people under the age of 35 get their news from Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram [americanpressinstitute.org].

  Overall, just 47 percent who use Facebook say that getting news is a main motivation for visiting, but it has become one of the significant activities they engage in once they are there. Fully 88 percent of Millennials get news from Facebook regularly, for instance, and more than half of them do so daily.

  Some people, particularly older Millennials, are more inclined to actively seek news, while others tend to let news find them, but virtually all Millennials employ a blend of both methods, as well as a mix of platforms and activities.

  “Social media keeps me more informed than I could be with the other forms of news,” said Elese, a 25-year-old in Chicago. “By quickly scrolling through my feed, I can see the major stories going on. If I need to read deeper into it, I can go to a credible source’s website.”

  You know, that sounds terrible, and it is. But the older generations mostly get their news from television, and is that really any better?

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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  Insightful=2, Interesting=1, Informative=1, Total=4
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• Re:mind, boggled at the implications (Score: 5, Insightful) by requerdanos on Monday February 05 2018, @01:58AM

  by requerdanos (5997) on Monday February 05 2018, @01:58AM (#633106) Journal

  You know, that sounds terrible, and it is. But the older generations mostly get their news from television, and is that really any better?

  Well, I'd argue that the TV model makes it easier to keep up with considering the source of your news, and considering its reliability.

  The typical evening TV-News-Watching session goes watch local news, then watch Network News. Fill-in from your favorite news network.

  So, it might go:

  Story - Source
  #1 - Channel 3
  #2 - Channel 3
  #3 - Channel 3
  #4 - Channel 3
  #5 - Channel 3
  #6 - National Network X
  #7 - National Network X
  #8 - National Network X
  #9 - National Network X
  #10 - National Network X
  #11 - Favorite News Channel Y
  #12 - Favorite News Channel Y

  So twelve stories, only three editorial sources, and all of those editorial sources, while not infallible, are still doing better than 50% and when they do get it wrong, the others cry about it and name them specifically.

  Contrast with:

  Story - Source
  #1 - Random source, not sure what it was, via facebook
  #2 - Different Random source, not sure what it was, via facebook
  #3 - Another Different Random source, not sure what it was, via facebook
  #4 - Still Another Random source, not sure what it was, via twitter, reposted via facebook
  #5 - buzzkill-dot-com totally legit news division, via facebook
  #6 - Totally reliable random minor partisan political website, via facebook
  #7-99 - Rinse and repeat.

  Tough to even keep up with what the sources are, let alone consider their reputations, unless you actually look to see what source each story comes from and keep score.

  In talking with people who seem to get their news that way, when I ask a question about what was the source of a particular story, I tend to get "I dunno, it was, you know, under the news section and stuff, you know, where the little things are?" at best, and all too often it's just a blank stare and accusation that I don't know how Facebook even works if I would have to ask.

  Parent