Schneider Associates Launch of the Week: Facebook Journalism Project

Week of January 15, 2017

FACEBOOKJOURNALISM

PROJECT

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Facebook recently announced the launch of a new endeavor: The Journalism Project.

The announcement of the project comes one week after Facebook hired former CNN reporter, anchor and host Campbell Brown. Brown was brought on to Facebook to lead its news partnership team, according to TIME.

The goal of the project is to increase “news literacy” to combat the recent criticism of fake news stories that have been populated the social platform highlighted by election coverage.

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Fidji Simo, Director of Product formally announced the project in a blog post (http://bit.ly/2j6l1u9) stating that Facebook wants to create stronger ties with the media, working directly with its new news partners to:

1. Develop new products. - Work together to discover better storytelling formats (improve Facebook Live, Instant Articles, etc).

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- Promote local news and independent media.

- Sponsor key journalism conferences around the world and host regular “meetings” with the media.

2. Train journalists on Facebook’s new products/news platforms.

- Offer media partners free socialperformance measurement tools.

- Expand tools to help journalistslive report. (i.e. Facebook Live).

Image Source: https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/FEATURED-Facebook_News-02.jpg.jpgSource: http://time.com/4631469/facebook-journalism-project/

- Increase commitment to First Draft Partner Network, “a coalition of platforms and 80+ publishers, that works together to provide practical and ethical guidance in how to find, verify and publish content sourced from the social web.”

3. Provide training and tools for everyone.

- Work with third parties, such as the News Literacy Project, tohelp promote education on news sources. Facebook will be helping to produce PSAs aimed at this goal.

- Improve ways for users to report fake news and spam.