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12/07/2016

Facebook's "walled wonderland" is incompatible with journalism

From Monday Note

Setting aside the need to fix its current PR nightmare, Facebook has no objective interest in fixing its fake stories problem.

In the end, it all boils down to this:

  1. Facebook is above all an advertising machine. A fantastic one. I encourage everyone to explore its spectacular advertising interface and, even better, to spend a few bucks to boost a post, or build an ad. Its power, reach, granularity and overall efficiency are dizzying.
  2. Facebook’s revenue system depends on a single parameter: page views. Pages views come from sharing. Which page criteria lead to the best sharing volumes?
  • Emotions. Preferably positive ones. The little one's smile, the cat looking at a horror movie, etc. Or the human story loaded with sentiment. Facebook is plainly honest about emotions being a dominant factor: I often heard its people telling social media editors: “Go for emotion. It gets the best engagement.”
  • Fun, entertaining stuff. Again, cat videos, listicles, cartoons.
  • Proximity. Things emanating from friends and family. Facebook has to severely edit its huge content firehose in order to determine what is eligible to be shown in one's newsfeed. In doing so, the company chooses to give more weight to content originated by friends and family.
  • Affinities. Content that will comfort users in their opinions and feelings toward society or politics. On Facebook, you’ll never be alone thinking or believing what you hold dear.

So, sharing is key because it leads to higher page consumption which, in turn, leads to multiple bespoke advertising exposures.

How does Facebook tweak its system in order to favor sharing? It does so by becoming the ultimate filter bubble.

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