How Facebook shapes the news

Since the Arab Springs, it is common knowledge that Facebook is a powerful media, allowing people to exchange news or defeat censorship in countries where newspapers are gagged. But in addition to being a media tool, the social network also exerts an increasing influence on the media themselves.

Thanks to its “like” and “share” buttons, Facebook is the number one buzz and virality generator, and this position keeps on increasing: an article from “The Atlantic” notes that in 2012, Google and Facebook were equally powerful traffic generators for Buzzfeed. Today, Facebook generates 3,5 times more traffic. According to a study from the Pew Research Center, about a third of American adults get their news on Facebook.

This is why it is of paramount importance, for newspapers, to publish news that appeal to the Facebook algorithms. Editors from major media companies, including The New York Times, have met Facebook executives to know how to achieve this holy grail.

For not every piece of news is successful on Facebook: the key word, here, is “infotainment”. As The Atlantic points out, the articles shared on Facebook are mostly the ones not about recent or upcoming events. Fashion, celebrities, ads, the latest trendy diet, the most beautiful landscapes in the world, the cutest cats etc. are all the rage. All the studies conducted on this topic led to the same conclusion: the most viral news on Facebook are the ones producing “high-arousal emotions”, as reports The Atlantic, i.e, extreme emotions, be they positive (joy, awe) or negative (anger, stress).

The temptation is great, for newspapers, to change their editorial line to fit this mould. But, as the New York Times article reports, the risk, when chasing social, is to end up publishing exactly the same kind of cute / funny / people news than any other media and loosing one’s specificity. Maybe it would be best to forget the algorithm and simply try to offer news, which are at the same time enjoyable and with high added value…

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