January 27, 2021
In the era of ‘FAKE NEWS’, Facebook has begun its rollout of ‘Facebook News’ for users based in the UK. This service will be a tailored choice of Facebook approved news sources that users can consume on the web or the official Facebook app in its very own tab.
With many users, I included, getting their news from social media outlets, this would be a welcome service, curated to the wants and interests of individual users. Users will also have the ability to take control of this feed, having the ability to decide if an article is what they are interested in or to remove a news source that they don’t like or see relevant. This feed is similar to Google’s ‘Discover’ tab on Android phones, which also considers the user’s recent search trends and pages viewed. Both services aim at getting essential and relevant news to its users through an interactive feed, that changes depending on the user.
These new ways to digest news has been something that has been coming for a few years now, with this statistic that states: “As of 2020, Pew Research Center reported that American adults who look to social media for news is now at 55%.” With more and more people looking to social media for their information, and Facebook embracing this, it should be easier for users to stay up to date with what matters to them while still connecting through the Facebook platform.