Improved Access to News and Facebook's Plan for "a News Section"

I love the expanded news coverage available in the 21^st century via the Internet. Growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s my news typically came from reading morning and afternoon newspapers and sometimes watching the evening news on one of the three major television networks at the time (CBS, NBC, and ABC).

Now newspaper stories, television news stories, and other news sources from around the world are available online, and most of them seem to be free of charge. However, despite the wealth of news stories available free online from relatively reputable sources, a July 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center[1] found that 20% of people “often” get their news from social media—with even more getting it from there at least occasionally. Facebook was the most common social media source used. As I see it, social media is not a reputable source.

Facebook’s Plan for a News Section

The Wall Street Journal reported[2] last week that Facebook “is offering news outlets millions of dollars for the rights to put their content in a news section.” If it works out, this can potentially provide persons who depend on Facebook for their news better access to reputable news sources.

I urge persons to read the Wall Street Journal article, which states that Facebook may even pay for just showing news headlines and brief excerpts that many other websites (probably including Craft News Report, though I’m not sure) provide on their websites without paying for them—though such websites typically include links back to the original news sources where readers can read the entire articles.

I think Facebook is taking a step in the right direction that will help those who depend on social media for news. Also, it can provide needed revenue for original news sources. Facebook’s plan will be even better if it expands it to cover more newspapers, many of which are struggling, but often remain the best source of information. And, it will be a big plus if the selection of which stories get posted is done well.

My Typical Approach to Accessing News Stories

Personally, I typically read news online from my local newspaper and television stations, and a few major national and international news sources (AP, NYT, WSJ, Reuters, BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Guardian, Daily Mail, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, etc.).

For breaking news, to get additional details, I sometimes read stories online from newspapers or television stations in that area. So, regardless of what Facebook does, it may not impact my reading and viewing of news stories much.

I find it wonderful that it is reasonably easy to type in the URL for local news sources and well known national sources, and then quickly go to their websites to read news pieces. Furthermore, thanks to the search engine Google (and occasionally other search engines), I can often search easily for other news sources from various places around the world. Google often even offers to translate pages in other languages into English free of charge—and does so quickly—and I hope reasonably accurately.

Potential Bias, the early 1800s, and the Future

The potential exists for bias from any source, and a few websites like Google have a lot of control over what we find when we search online. Furthermore, some national governments limit access to the Internet and/or limit access to certain sites for persons in their countries. And, in some places the Internet is not readily accessible at all to most people for economic and/or geographic reasons.

But, overall, I think the Internet gives us much more freedom to access news in the 21^st century than persons had in the past. For example, back in the early 1800s, before the invention of the telegraph, and long before radio, television, or the Internet, timely news was limited. Advances since then have improved things. And, I look forward to even more positive changes in the future.

But, one key to further improving the widespread availability of quality news is to reward producers and distributors of this news. And, despite their errors, omissions, and sometimes bias, the major newspapers, television stations, journals, magazines, government websites, local newspapers, etc., are better news sources than blog posts by liberals or conservatives deliberately writing to attain some self-motivated purpose rather than to report the facts.

I hope Facebook moves ahead with its plan. And, I hope other websites consider following its example.

ENDNOTES: 

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[1] Katerina Eva Masa and Elisa Shearer; “News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2018”; journalism.org; September 10, 2018; website accessed August 11, 2019; https://www.journalism.org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/

[2] Benjamin Mullin and Sahil Patel; “Facebook Offers News Outlets Millions of Dollars a Year to License Content”; Wall Street Journal website; updated August 8, 2019, 6:37 p.m. ET; website accessed August 11, 2019; https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-offers-news-outlets-millions-of-dollars-a-year-to-license-content-11565294575

NOTE:

This piece being submitted to Google Blogger on August 11, 2019 is virtually identical to one the author submitted to Craft News Report, a website operated by his friend Paul Craft, earlier on August 11, 2019.