How you can use Facebook for News
Throughout the years, social media’s purpose has changed in multiple ways from its initial intended function. Starting off simply as just websites and applications through which users could create and share content in order to connect with other like-minded individuals, social media is now functioning as a platform for news. The creating, posting, sharing, and interaction of news through social media platforms is something that, according to a study done in 2016 by Pew Research Center and the Knight Foundation, 62 percent of American adults do. Alongside Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and more, Facebook leads the pack in social media news usage according to that same study.
If you are someone who is an avid Facebook user, occasionally uses it, or is interested in how Facebook can be used to interact with news, continue reading for a useful, informative, and updated guide as to how to use the social media platform to do so.
For starters, what is Facebook? It is a social networking website that was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes in which users can do anything from sharing photographs and feelings to chatting with friends and tagging them in other users’ posts. Facebook has since revolutionized the way we connect with our loved ones, the way businesses advertise and promote, and the way we interact with news and information.
News did not start to be of high importance to Facebook until the creation of the News Feed in 2006 and the subscribe feature in 2011 which both together led to it becoming a massive source for news consumption. The way these features work have most definitely changed since their creation and are now more tailored to the likes of the user.
What this all ultimately means to a Facebook user is that what you input into the website through likes, comments, and shares, will heavily determine the content you are receiving back on your News Feed. Consequently, this means that the news sources you interact with most are prioritized. If you still feel like the content you are seeing on your News Feed is not quite what you want to see, you can always take the matter into your own hands and adjust your preferences manually.
Once Facebook’s algorithm and your manual preferences come into play, your News Feed will start displaying all kinds of news content that you will be interested in. This news content can be user-generated or from news organizations themselves that have created a page. A prime example of a news organization page is CNN’s due to the fact that it has taken advantage of all kinds of Facebook features to keep their followers informed. Through Facebook Messenger, you can “chat” with CNN at all 24 hours of the day in order to relatively quickly get information and answers sent to you without having to scroll through their main page trying to scavenge through a bunch of other articles.
Although the news content seen on Facebook is primarily breaking, national, and international news from news organizations such as CNN, one can still see and interact with local news due to Facebook’s ability to create a public page in which multiple people can contribute and interact with its posts. Multiple pages like these exist on Facebook which end up serving as discussion forums for towns and cities all over the world. These pages allow users to become informed about what is happening around them locally as well as give them the chance to contribute information that might be new or crucial to those they are connected to. Alongside being able to post statuses, photos, videos, and articles, the relatively new Facebook Live feature has revolutionized the way we receive our news. It allows users to broadcast anything directly from their phones, or other devices with a camera, right as it is happening.
Due to the fact that all these features encourage anyone and everyone to become involved in news, specifically the creating of it, some might be wary of the authenticity of the news that Facebook displays. Although Facebook allows everyone the freedom to post what they want, they have created “Community Standards” in order to limit the amount of inauthentic or incorrect information that is posted. Some of the standards include what pages should and should not do such as “avoid headlines that withhold information required to understand what the content of the article is and headlines that exaggerate or sensationalize the article to create misleading expectations”, “pages should not deliberately try and game News Feed to get more distribution than they normally would”, and “publishers should focus on posting accurate, authentic content”. Albeit these might just seem like suggestions, Facebook has also added a feature similar to Twitter which verifies pages like media organizations and public figures in order to ensure users that the page they are looking at is authentic and not falsified.
Although these parameters have been put in place, the best way to ensure the news you are receiving from Facebook is reliable is to do further research. When interviewing around the campus of College of DuPage about how Facebook users go about interacting with news on the platform, answers showed that many prefer to do further research. “If there is a headline that catches my attention, I will go find the story on a source I like and trust more,” said Josh, a College of DuPage student. “I see the news headlines on Facebook and then go on to find more articles on The Hill or Politico.” Another College of DuPage student agreed but made the point that she always does further research when gathering news from any social media platform, not just Facebook. “I feel that all media is biased when it comes to news so no matter where you get your news from, information will be changed and therefore requires further research,” Fabiola said. “Some fake news can pop up here and there on Facebook, but a quick Google search will let me know if it is real or fake.”
It is clear that as a news consumer, one must always do more research to verify that the information they are receiving is correct, regardless of what platform they received it from. When using Facebook for news, the best way to go about doing so is by…
- Tailoring your News Feed
- Following public pages and news organizations
- Becoming familiar with utilizing features such as chatting, Facebook Live, and creating public pages
- Checking the authenticity and credibility of the information you read
