More Than Half of All News Consumption On Facebook In America Is About the Coronavirus, Report Finds (nytimes.com) 52
The coronavirus has revived Facebook as a dominant news hub. According to an internal report by The New York Times, more than half of all news consumption on Facebook in America is about the virus. "Overall U.S. traffic from Facebook to other websites also increased by more than 50 percent last week from the week before, 'almost entirely' owing to intense interest in the virus," adds The New York Times. From the report: The report, which was posted to Facebook's internal network by Ranjan Subramanian, a data scientist at the company, was a lengthy analysis of what it called an "unprecedented increase in the consumption of news articles on Facebook" over the past several weeks. According to the report, more than 90 percent of the clicks to coronavirus content came from "Power News Consumers" and "Power News Discussers" -- Facebook's terms for users who read and comment on news stories much more frequently than the average user. The company is now considering several options for targeting those people with higher-quality information to make sure it is "being spread downstream."
The report shows that Facebook is closely monitoring people's news habits during a critical period and actively trying to steer them toward authoritative sources in what amounts to a global, real-time experiment in news distribution. At times, Facebook itself seemed unsure which news sources users would turn to in a crisis, with Mr. Subramanian noting that "fortunately" many people were clicking on links from publishers that the company considers high-quality.
The report shows that Facebook is closely monitoring people's news habits during a critical period and actively trying to steer them toward authoritative sources in what amounts to a global, real-time experiment in news distribution. At times, Facebook itself seemed unsure which news sources users would turn to in a crisis, with Mr. Subramanian noting that "fortunately" many people were clicking on links from publishers that the company considers high-quality.
looking about the same on slashdot too (Score:1)
big news just gets talked about... a lot!
Not Sure What Sample Size That Is (Score:3)
Facebook isn't exactly in the list of what I would call news dispensers.
The media has been pretty terrible altogether and I've mostly been following Timcast. He does a good job of sorting through all the non-sense, but you can certainly see it is getting to him. The politics and horror of it all.
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Re: Not Sure What Sample Size That Is (Score:2)
Steer towards what is the question? I am not convinced it is a neutral distribution of media.
Reddit has clearly adopted the idea they will manipulate opinions at any cost. Why would I trust a corporation to tell me who is right?
This is a decision you need to make for yourself and hopefully under severe scrutiny.
Trust no one â" Fox Moulder
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They have a third-party fact-checking panel: https://www.facebook.com/help/... [facebook.com]
The effort seems to have been undertaken in earnest, but I'm a little skeptical of a solution like this at Facebook's scale. I don't know if there's any sort of independent analysis of their effectiveness, but I'm sure some third parties have checked and published their results. (I'm sure many people with views promoted or discredited by the panel have also "checked" and published their "results," so grains of salt, all around.)
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They don't have the ability (Score:2)
On the list of "high-quality news sources" that they whitelisted is Fox News. So, they just mean popular outside Facebook, not high-quality.
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Facebook isn't exactly in the list of what I would call news dispensers.
Ben & Jerry's isn't exactly in the list of what I would call food dispensers. But fact remains, some people get some of their nutrients by stuffing ice cream into their mouths. And therefore ice cream = food.
Turning ice cream into health food is a lost cause I think. But improving FB as a news source, well... not "beyond all hope" I guess. Let's hope FB manages to keep hidden agenda's out of their improvement efforts.
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Tim Pool is a pundit, a young one, but one nevertheless.
We listen to pundits to feed our confirmation bias.
His page now looks no different than that of any tabloid, carefully managing imagery.
Is it surprising? (Score:4, Informative)
When people are living inside a story, its naturally going to focus their attention.
When the massive fires where on here in Australia is *all* anybody talked about it. And why wouldn't we, every day we'd hear stories from friends about losing their houses, or we'd be breathing the smoke drifting into the city. I'd say 60-70% of my attention to news and politis centered around that at the time, because it was affecting me directly.
Well this Coronavirus is affecting everyones lives, and threatening to kill a whole bunch of people I care about. And this is happening to *everyone*. Its no surprise we'd be furiously F5ing for some sort of indication that its gonna be OK, that a rescue is on the way, or for some sort of indication on what we are to do next.
NSS (Score:2)
Re: NSS (Score:2)
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Of course - its the most important issue (Score:2)
There are tens of millions of lives hanging on decisions made in the next few weeks to months. Its the most important issue facing the world right now.
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Christ that's terrifying (Score:2)
The company is now considering several options for targeting those people with higher-quality information to make sure it is "being spread downstream."
Anyone else get the shivers over this comment?
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They work much better, actually.
You get an imperial shit-ton of "alternative sources" and "alternative facts" with trickle-down news, and they work just as well for entertainment and staying "informed" as the "mainstream" ones.
You cannot get "alternative money" that work half as well from a trickle-down economy, though.
It's a real story (Score:3, Funny)
People need virus news. It's a real story. Not like "ZOMG, all the bees are dying: global famine". Or "Russia collusion". Or the latest clickbait nonsense. Or "you won't believe what politician ABC said". Or politician XYZ has a bill (that will never make it to a vote, but we won't tell you that).
And there's no sports and no social events. What do you expect people to read on Facebook? The latest Linux kernel update info?
Re:It's a real story (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you expect people to read on Facebook? The latest Linux kernel update info?
I wouldn't believe it if I did.
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there's no sports
Here's the next [twitter.com] best [twitter.com] thing... [twitter.com]
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"Not like "ZOMG, all the bees are dying: global famine"."
I used to see bees all the time. Now I seldom see them even where they used to be common. You think they're just hiding?
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I see bees all the time.
Check iNaturalist.
You probably live near monoculture farms, and they used to keep their own bees, and so you'd see them flying around, but now the bees work in the gig economy and you don't see them as much because they're somewhere else.
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Why /.? why? (Score:2)
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Are you sure it is "paywalled" and not just idiotwalled?
Step One: View->Page Style->No Style
Step Two: Read article
Meanwhile, Democrats block virus relief bill (Score:3)
Among the demands that the Democrats are trying to get jammed into the bill:
1) Unprecedented collective bargaining powers for unions
2) Increased fuel emissions standards for airlines
3) Expansion of wind and solar tax credits
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Re:Meanwhile, Democrats block virus relief bill (Score:5, Informative)
that's the main stumbling block, but there's also Republicans sticking in an extension of an abstinence-only program that was set to expire and excluded non-profits who receive Medicaid and probably other things I'm not aware of.
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We're now #3 in a race we don't want to win.
https://www.worldometers.info/... [worldometers.info]
We'll probably be #2 before the weekend.
What I came here to say was that people should "Stop getting their news from Facebook"
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Sen. Tom Cotton (R, Arkansas) decided to take to the Senate floor and make some brutally honest commentary about what Pelosi and her Democrats are now demanding.
Cotton first brought up that Democrats aren’t even on the floor and have twice refused to start the debate on legislation that would help our economy and the American people and their businesses. He even bashed Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for blocking Sen. Susan Collins from speaking on the bill.
Cotton proceeded to blow
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"The Corona Virus Bailout Stalled. And It's Mitch McConnell's Fault."
Unbelievable.
As Nick Arama writes, "That’s an insane rewriting of the truth. Republicans apparently forced the Democrats to block the bill because Democrats didn’t get every piece of crazy pork they wanted in a bill that’s supposed to be about virus relief. Talk about having no shame."
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Oh, great... (Score:3)
Unlike the BBC (Score:1)
Thisis because. (Score:1)
That's because 90% of all "news" right now is about Coronavirus.
The remainder is anti-American propaganda and #OrangeManBad.
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There are other news? (Score:2)
Hey, my papers is defective! It's only 99% coronavirus.
Small wonder (Score:2)
Correlates with the 50% of people with an IQ of under 100.
Nothing on Facebook qualifies as "News" (Score:3)
When "friends" repeat things it is called GOSSIP.
When professionals investigate and compare information, then only tell you things they have confirmed, that is called "News".
Check your local govt/corps for fraud! (Score:2)
I can get the facts I need in a few minutes (Score:2)
The rest of the stuff is speculation and punditry that does more harm than good