ISLAMABAD – Facebook on Friday began rolling out its dedicated “News Tab”with professionally produced content, the latest move by the social networkto promote journalism and shed its reputation as a platform formisinformation.
The news section will be separate from user’s normal feeds and includearticles from partner news organizations, with Facebook relying on bothhuman curation and algorithmic “personalization.”
Labeled Facebook News, the new tab “gives people more control over thestories they see, and the ability to explore a wider range of their newsinterests, directly within the Facebook app,” said a Facebook statement.
The initiative is in line with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s call topromote “quality journalism” and help readers separate professional contentfrom viral hoaxes.
“We talked to news organizations about what they’d like to see included ina news tab, how their stories should be presented and what analytics toprovide,” said Facebook vice president for news partnerships Campbell Brownand product manager Mona Sarantakos, Product Manager in a statement.
Earlier this week, Zuckerberg pointed to a “big announcement” on news andjournalism and indicated the new feature would highlight “high qualitynews, not just social content.”
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Facebook is expected to pay some of the news organizations that willcontribute to the News Tab but has yet to disclose full details.
The social network has partnered with some 200 news organizations includingthe Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CBS News, BuzzFeed, Fox News, theBoston Globe, Bloomberg and Vanity Fair.
Facebook said it would begin an initial test rollout which would “showcaselocal original reporting by surfacing local publications from the largestmajor metro areas across the country, beginning with New York, Los Angeles,Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Houston, Washington DC, Miami,Atlanta and Boston.” -APP/AFP
