Member-only story
Facebook News Won’t Fix the News
It’s a vegetable stand parked in a side corridor of Willy Wonka’s factory
Facebook’s news feed upended the news industry, mostly by accident. Originally designed to connect friends, it turned out to be a potent forum for sharing information, including articles and memes about politics, science, and other newsworthy topics.
As a way to keep users engaged, this worked wonders. As a way to keep them informed, it was largely a disaster. Facebook’s news feed algorithm, which boosts the posts that provoke the most reactions, established all the wrong incentives for publishers. It allowed cynical hoaxsters, ideologues, and clickbait artists to siphon the online audience from mainstream news organizations. The same journalistic standards that had helped newspapers and the like thrive in the print era crippled them in the Facebook era. As their homepage readerships disintegrated, even reputable outlets bent their ethics to try to reach Facebook’s vast audience.
This dynamic was not entirely lost on Facebook, although the company found it convenient to downplay or justify it. At various points along the way, Facebook has tried to correct some of its algorithms’ excesses and even partner with some reputable news organizations to try to boost their content. These efforts, such as Instant Articles…
