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Facebook to Invest $300m in Supporting Local News

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Re: Facebook to Invest $300m in Supporting Local News

#11

Post by zozbot123 »

ijafri wrote: post #8
claudiulodro wrote: post #3

Interesting timing, the day after Newspack was announced.[1] I know which one I'm going to support, but it's going to be tough to take on a $300mm commitment with a $3mm commitment. 1. https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/newspack-by-wordpre...

With Google Reader Gone, Facebook and Twitter essentially have taken the place of feed readers. It makes a lot of sense for Facebook, it's not merely a social network anymore. It's acting like a social 'OS' for the users now.

Yahoo.com used to be that "social OS" in the 1990s and early 2000s, and look at them now. They even had a Facebook-like feature as part of their service, Yahoo 360.

Re: Facebook to Invest $300m in Supporting Local News

#12

Post by naravara »

lquist wrote: post #4

Ah yes the bastion of journalistic quality that is local news...wait...what? FB gets a lot of flak for fake news and then decides to invest in local news? Why not in institutions that set the standard for journalism and bring accountability such as Pro Publica?

The decline in local news likely plays a big part in the decline in American civic life and social capital.

That said, $300M isn't nearly enough to even mitigate the damage Facebook does to American civic life simply by virtue of being a data-mining, misinformation spreading behemoth.

Their business model is at cross purposes with the ideal of having an informed citizenry. The entire point of marketing and advertising is to construct a reality in which people are motivated to buy what you're selling. It is utterly indifferent to truth.

You can't have a medium whose every design pattern is geared towards empowering bullshit artists and fostering susceptibility to said bullshit and then just try to paper it over by throwing some cash in the direction of "local journalism." Seriously, $300M is the equivalent of spare change found between couch cushions for Facebook. This is nothing. This is just image laundering.

Re: Facebook to Invest $300m in Supporting Local News

#13

Post by zoul »

lquist wrote: post #4

Ah yes the bastion of journalistic quality that is local news...wait...what? FB gets a lot of flak for fake news and then decides to invest in local news? Why not in institutions that set the standard for journalism and bring accountability such as Pro Publica?

Here in the Czech Republic, around 70 % of all people live in municipalities under 50 thousand people, and I think that’s rather the norm than an exception. Doesn’t that put local media in a different perspective?

Re: Facebook to Invest $300m in Supporting Local News

#15

Post by ojbyrne »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #5

Know what would actually help local news? Ad revenue share on their pages. So many older people treat Facebook as "the internet" are rarely venture off platform.

Maybe we have a different idea of “older” people, but my experience is that older people actually still read newspapers (ie dead trees).

Re: Facebook to Invest $300m in Supporting Local News

#17

Post by zoul »

As someone who has been running a local newspaper for the last four years in a town of about 11 thousand people, getting money or support from Facebook would feel like someone robbing you and then being so kind as to split the money with you. My trust in them is exactly zero.

They have practically monopolized news distribution, helped to destroy the business model of an important social service and now they would like to make up for it by giving a fraction of the money back?

Re: Facebook to Invest $300m in Supporting Local News

#18

Post by Dirlewanger »

lquist wrote: post #4

Ah yes the bastion of journalistic quality that is local news...wait...what? FB gets a lot of flak for fake news and then decides to invest in local news? Why not in institutions that set the standard for journalism and bring accountability such as Pro Publica?

The whole thing reeks of damage control to make it look like they're doing something. $60m/yr for 5 years is a measly fraction of their $40b in revenue.

It also fails to understand why local journalism has completely collapsed in the past decade. A big portion of that is people moving to cities. Politico did a great article on this which showed why the media does have a decidedly liberal slant.

Regardless this is a societal problem that a private company such as FB throwing money at will not make a noticeable difference.

Re: Facebook to Invest $300m in Supporting Local News

#19

Post by rhcom2 »

porpoisely wrote: post #10
lquist wrote: post #4

Ah yes the bastion of journalistic quality that is local news...wait...what? FB gets a lot of flak for fake news and then decides to invest in local news? Why not in institutions that set the standard for journalism and bring accountability such as Pro Publica?

Pro Publica was created by billionaire bankers a little more than 10 years ago. They aren't in need of any funding. Also, it's a bit of a stretch to say that pro publica is the standard of journalism or accountability. Pro Publica is an advocacy institution.

I think you could call any investigative journalism "advocacy".

Re: Facebook to Invest $300m in Supporting Local News

#20

Post by petulla »

lquist wrote: post #4

Ah yes the bastion of journalistic quality that is local news...wait...what? FB gets a lot of flak for fake news and then decides to invest in local news? Why not in institutions that set the standard for journalism and bring accountability such as Pro Publica?

ProPublica operates a local reporting network with 14 partners. https://www.propublica.org/atpropublica/propublica-picks-loc...
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