Good morning everyone,
Facebook came to the LION Publisher’s conference in Chicago last week as it looks for ways to promote trustworthy news in Delaware and elsewhere.
Josh Maby and Dorrine Mendoza of Facebook outlined its Journalism Project and other matters at a LION session last week. The project aims to provide journalists with tools they can use to better do their jobs.
This year, the social media giant has been working with LION, a membership organization made up of hyperlocal online sites that typically cover cities, towns and even specialized areas such as business. Delaware Business Now is a four-year member of LION.
Facebook has a long-running uneasy relationship with journalists. Smaller hyperlocals, in particular, can end up on the losing end of a Facebook news feed. “Trolls” can go so far as to threaten reporters. In our conference packets was an advice sheet from Facebook regarding privacy and online safety.
There is also “fake” or low-quality news that may include “clickbait” headlines that may contain a grain of truth but are often misleading or sensational. Example: The dog ran into the street and what happened will bring you to tears.
Many outlets aren’t of much help, usually confining their Facebook posts to their own content or resorting to click bait-stories to beef up traffic.
A heavily reported development comes from advertisements of dubious origin and “troll factories” that have emerged during the last election.
Facebook uses multiple tools to fight clickbait and of late hired a lot of people to combat the troll factories and shady advertising.
This week the harshly criticized company will be grilled by members of Congress.
Meanwhile, hyperlocal publishers sometimes find a clever headline can run afoul of the code. Worse yet changes in the back end of Facebook can lead to sudden drops in page views. We’ve seen it happen.
The Facebook world, at times, remains strange and confusing. The fact that the company recognizes the need for solid local reporting is encouraging. – Doug Rainey, Publisher
