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Facebook’s algorithm change has spurred an angry, Fox News-dominated News Feed

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Re: Facebook’s algorithm change has spurred an angry, Fox News-dominated News Feed

#11

Post by volak »

Fox News dominates ratings on TV so its not surprising they'd be #1 - there's also the fact this is "engagements" and not click-throughs. I'd wager good 15% of these are probably people clicking "Angry" not actually engaging.

If you look at "content with the most shares" not surprisingly Reuters and Patch tops the list.

OP's headline presumes any algorithm should achieve left/right balance - this is just impossible.

There was a good tweet the other day something along the lines of

If I Google a headline the results are:

* New York Times: Your number of free articles is 0

* Wall Street Journal: Subscription needed

* Bloomberg: See this article for $1

* Fox News: Completely free

* Breitbart: Completely free

Seeing this its no stretch to understand why media struggles

Re: Facebook’s algorithm change has spurred an angry, Fox News-dominated News Feed

#12

Post by chongli »

revskill wrote: post #3

Long time ago, my facebook newsfeed was full of my friends' sharing, it's been very useful place for us to keep friends update. But now, it's a different place. It's a place for ads, for livestream, for real "social" stuffs, but most of them is useless to me for what i use facebook for.

Facebook's business model is inherently in conflict with the use cases for normal people which you've just described. When you only spend time engaging with your friends and family, you cost Facebook money. Facebook only wants you on the platform because you contribute to the network effect. The people who make all the money for Facebook are the masses who are most easily swayed by all of the manipulation going on.

Re: Facebook’s algorithm change has spurred an angry, Fox News-dominated News Feed

#14

Post by chongli »

jaabe wrote: post #5
revskill wrote: post #3

Long time ago, my facebook newsfeed was full of my friends' sharing, it's been very useful place for us to keep friends update. But now, it's a different place. It's a place for ads, for livestream, for real "social" stuffs, but most of them is useless to me for what i use facebook for.

The Facebook news feed is dead to anyone but trolls, at least in my anecdotal experience. Facebook is only useful for its yellow pages function. Unfortunately that alone is enough to keep my social circle on Facebook. It’s just really hard to break away, because social circles consists of people with different social circles, and not everyone is going to replace Facebook with the samething, and then everyone is still…

Email was killed by spam (and lack of ease of use) long ago. Now it's mostly used by business.

Re: Facebook’s algorithm change has spurred an angry, Fox News-dominated News Feed

#16

Post by api »

volak wrote: post #11

Fox News dominates ratings on TV so its not surprising they'd be #1 - there's also the fact this is "engagements" and not click-throughs. I'd wager good 15% of these are probably people clicking "Angry" not actually engaging. If you look at "content with the most shares" not surprisingly Reuters and Patch tops the list. OP's headline presumes any algorithm should achieve left/right balance - this is just impossible.…

I understand the economics of course but it seems obvious to me that if real newspapers charge then propaganda and anger porn will rule discourse.

If you want some more on the list for balance there are plenty of left wing Breitbarts you could add. Those are free too.

BTW I think fear porn / anger porn is an appropriate term. It releases brain chemicals that can be addictive just like sex porn. This explains some of its virality.

Re: Facebook’s algorithm change has spurred an angry, Fox News-dominated News Feed

#18

Post by gnicholas »

> the “angry” reaction dominates many pages, with “Fox News driving the most angry reactions of anyone, with nearly double that of anyone else.”

So does this mean that Fox News is dominating the news feed because of liberal people hating on it, or is it because of articles that Fox News writes that riles up their base?

Re: Facebook’s algorithm change has spurred an angry, Fox News-dominated News Feed

#20

Post by jimmy1 »

alkibiades wrote: post #17

why is fox news “angry” yet i’m sure feeds full of aoc and black lives matter would be considered woke. Biased article. The anger is very prevalent with both sides.

Exactly. Someone with currently no political home what-so-ever, anyone else here that thinks otherwise needs to take a step back and evaluate the extremism that has taken over both sides.
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