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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."

4 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. 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.
  2. 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 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: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?