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Facebook Will Prioritize Local Stories In Your News Feed (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the high-quality-news dept.

Facebook announced today that it will begin prioritizing local news, bumping it up higher in your feed if you follow a local publisher's Page or if a friend shares a locally-published story. "We are prioritizing local news as part of our emphasis on high-quality news, and with today's update, stories from local news publishers may appear higher in News Feed for followers in publishers' geographic areas," Facebook said in the announcement. Engadget reports: Facebook, which recently announced it would be shifting its News Feed focus away from news and more towards friends' posts, says the local news prioritization will kick off in the U.S., but it plans to expand it to other countries this year. "These efforts to prioritize quality news in News Feed, including this local initiative, are a direct result of the ongoing collaboration with partners," said Facebook. "Our goal is to show more news that connects people to their local communities, and we look forward to improving and expanding these efforts this year."

13 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Wat? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

    How am I going to get my news about Pizzagate, her email, the deep state and the secret society tha FBI runs?

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re:Wat? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      I also have some anti vaxers if you really want to read outlandish stuff...

      There's a guy I know a little bit -friend of a friend of a friend- who is an anti-vaxxer and he and his wife go to extreme lengths to not vaccinate their kids.

      Lately, he's been complaining about the fact that he's got shingles and they're really painful. Karma is a bitch, but I fear for his kids, who are decent people. He's also a big Trump supporter and talks about taking that powder stuff you buy on InfoWars that's made of glands and is supposed to give you get-up-and-go and keep you virile.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Wat? by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah just wait until you see those big Hillary or Trudeau supporters, who believe things that are pumped out of sites like "natural news" and so on. The anti-vaxxer thing isn't a "right only" issue, there's plenty of very rich, successful and supposedly highly educated people on the left who are anti-vaxxers. Hell the entire sham industry built off the anti-vaccine movement started with rich idiots, and the doctors they went to who were telling them that vaccines cause autism. Those are actual doctors who have their degree to practice no less, and still have it.

      Here in Canada, anti-vaccine garbage is a full-blown leftwing conspiracy theory and is *very* popular in Toronto, Ont., Ottawa, Ont., Hull, QC., and Vancouver, BC. The recent chickenpox and measles outbreak we had happened in mainly affluent areas of the country. Something similar happened in Europe with rubella and mumps again in affluent areas.

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      Om, nomnomnom...
  2. I have blocked ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... local news in Facebook.

    Facebook is not the fucking place to get the goddam news.

    FACEBOOK, YOU ARE NOT MY REAL MOM!!!!

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  3. Bad move in much of the world by jrumney · · Score: 2

    In much of the world, the local press is not free. With the rise of the internet, people finally had a way to get the real news about their government through the major international news organizations. Now Facebook is going to push local propaganda over reputable international news coverage. This is not an improvement.

    1. Re:Bad move in much of the world by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Now Facebook is going to push local propaganda over reputable international news coverage. This is not an improvement.

      You're blaming Facebook for not showing you what you want to see, and you still use facebook?

      Who cares what Facebook pushes? If you care, don't get your news from Facebook. Maybe the improvement will be that more people will realize that Facebook is not a source of news?

    2. Re:Bad move in much of the world by tinkerton · · Score: 2

      This is not how it works. Facebook represents a lot of internet traffic and if you can control that it means power. The idea that critical people don't use Facebook is nonsense. A large part of control is directing attention. That is not directly about believing claims but about believing where to look, what to look at. Of course the same way most people don't look behind headlines it is often enough to point to a claim in order to make people believe in it. Critical thinking is mostly about evaluating whatever your attention is drawn to. It is often weak at directing attention. If you allow someone to direct your attention to whatever supports his case it becomes likely that you'll end up agreeing to some extent even if you area very critical person

      I don't have facebook or twitter but I follow a few twitter accounts. I trust these twitter feeds to direct my attention.

  4. Yeah right by sit1963nz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Facebook showed me a "Top 5 places near you" which included a restaurant that closed a year ago.
    Facebook keeps showing me "groups" to join that I have zero interest in, and keeps showing the same ones again and again.
    Facebook keeps showing free flights scams
    Facebook keeps telling me I want to play certain games, or takes quizzes etc and I don't I won't and they can bugger off
    Facebook keeps telling me there are these women in Russia, Ukraine, etc who want to be my friend ..SCAM SCAM SCAM

    So given how completely incompetent Facebook show themselves to be, they think they should now be in between me and my trusted news sources.....
    Yeah, I would trust Kellyanne Conway to tell the truth first.

    1. Re:Yeah right by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

      So given how completely incompetent Facebook show themselves to be, they think they should now be in between me and my trusted news sources.....

      If Facebook is in between you and your trusted news sources, it is because you have put Facebook between you and your trusted news sources. Don't go through Facebook to get there, and your problem is solved.

    2. Re:Yeah right by Trogre · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Incompetent? You realize their mission is not to keep you happy, right?

      Their mission is to keep you (the product) using their service and to manipulate the content you are exposed to in order to maximize exposure for their customers (the advertisers).

      They just have to keep it entertaining enough to keep you below the threshold of annoyance below which the cost of leaving exceeds the cost of staying.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    3. Re:Yeah right by Known+Nutter · · Score: 2

      Why do people feel the need to make excuses for using Facebook?

      How did you keep in contact before Facebook? Try that.

      Or use Facebook if you wish. Itâ(TM)s your life, and your soul. But personally, I grow weary of hearing the excuses about keeping in touch. Itâ(TM)s ridiculous.

      --
      Beware of the Leopard.
  5. Stop trying to decide what I should see by vanyel · · Score: 2

    I explicitly don't use the News Feed because of crap like this - I just want to see *all* posts from friends and pages I follow in chronological order. Although facebook still fiddles with things a bit, I use a list and follow it to avoid the majority of the News Feed filters and nonsense.

  6. Post everything in chronological order? by X10 · · Score: 2

    Why can't facebook just post everything you subscribe to in chronological order? Why do people accept that Facebook manipulates your timeline? Geez...
    Not that I care, I quit fb long ago.

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    no, I don't have a sig