Nieman Foundation at Harvard
HOME
          
LATEST STORY
PressPad, an attempt to bring some class diversity to posh British journalism, is shutting down
ABOUT                    SUBSCRIBE
Feb. 15, 2022, 2:25 p.m.
LINK: twitter.com  ➚   |   Posted by: Laura Hazard Owen   |   February 15, 2022

Facebook and news have had a fraught relationship. Hyperpartisan content tends to draw the most engagement. Misinformation on the platform is rampant thanks in part to a small group of abusive, toxic “superusers.” But for all of those headaches — and mounting European legal challenges, and content moderation horror stories here and abroad — most people don’t read any news on Facebook at all. (They go elsewhere to read news, however, when Facebook is down.)

So Facebook announced Tuesday that what has been known as “News Feed” since 2006 will now simply be called “Feed.”

“We think Feed is a better reflection of the broad variety of content people see as they scroll,” Facebook spokesperson Dami Oyefeso told me.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the company now known as Meta, has made it clear that he believes the company’s future is in the metaverse. Investors may not agree, but it seems increasingly clear that the company’s interest in sharing publishers’ stories on its platform is fading.

Photo of horse consuming content by Kim Bartlett — Animal People, Inc., used under a Creative Commons license.

Show tags
 
Join the 60,000 who get the freshest future-of-journalism news in our daily email.
PressPad, an attempt to bring some class diversity to posh British journalism, is shutting down
“While there is even more need for this intervention than when we began the project, the initiative needs more resources than the current team can provide.”
Is the Texas Tribune an example or an exception? A conversation with Evan Smith about earned income
“I think risk aversion is the thing that’s killing our business right now.”
The California Journalism Preservation Act would do more harm than good. Here’s how the state might better help news
“If there are resources to be put to work, we must ask where those resources should come from, who should receive them, and on what basis they should be distributed.”