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The media becomes an activist for democracy
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Feb. 15, 2022, 2:25 p.m.
LINK: twitter.com  ➚   |   Posted by: Laura Hazard Owen   |   February 15, 2022

Facebook and news have had a fraught relationship. Hyperpartisan content tends to draw the most engagement. Misinformation on the platform is rampant thanks in part to a small group of abusive, toxic “superusers.” But for all of those headaches — and mounting European legal challenges, and content moderation horror stories here and abroad — most people don’t read any news on Facebook at all. (They go elsewhere to read news, however, when Facebook is down.)

So Facebook announced Tuesday that what has been known as “News Feed” since 2006 will now simply be called “Feed.”

“We think Feed is a better reflection of the broad variety of content people see as they scroll,” Facebook spokesperson Dami Oyefeso told me.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the company now known as Meta, has made it clear that he believes the company’s future is in the metaverse. Investors may not agree, but it seems increasingly clear that the company’s interest in sharing publishers’ stories on its platform is fading.

Photo of horse consuming content by Kim Bartlett — Animal People, Inc., used under a Creative Commons license.

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The media becomes an activist for democracy
“We cannot be neutral about this, by definition. A free press that doesn’t agitate for democracy is an oxymoron.”
Embracing influencers as allies
“News organizations will increasingly rely on digital creators not just as amplifiers but as integral partners in storytelling.”
Action over analysis
“We’ve overindexed on problem articulation, to the point of problem admiring. The risk is that we are analyzing ourselves into inaction and irrelevance.”