Facebook is now launching a “Journalism Project.” It will be continuing its efforts to change the way media organizations work with the social network. Or maybe you can also say Facebook is changing the way it is working with the news media. You might even call it trying to help its users improve their media literacy. Now that’s a social media project I can really get behind, to put a “good face” on :).
Now part of this new initiative certainly relates to Facebook’s vow last year to crack down on fake news. Facebook has struggled with defining its place in the media world over the past several months, coming to a head just after the election. Many raised concerns about whether fake news articles passed around on the site could have influenced the outcome. Mark Zuckerberg has dismissed this possibility as “extremely unlikely.” But continued questions about Facebook and other tech firms responsibility to vet news or curtail misinformation led to Facebook announcing that it would begin submitting stories reported as false to third-party fact-checking sites and then labeling stories found to be “disputed.”
This maybe too little too late in terms of this past Presidential election, but let’a just say we have all, hopedully,learned something “the hard way.”
Ray Myers
TechtoExpress 