The future of news is here!
Thanks to a new deal Facebook has made with publishers all over the world, users will now be able to read articles straight from Facebook, rather than clicking the link and waiting for the page with the article to load.
This move made by Facebook has gotten everyone in the media on the fence, arguing whether or not this is a good idea. While some say that the users should have an easier access to the news, others fear that the social network will take over the content of the publisher and will allow its users to see only the news they see fit.
The new feature of Facebook called Instant Articles, will give people the opportunity to experience news in a whole new way. Apart from the advantage of an easier access, users will also have the chance to see videos and photos that they can zoom in and study.
Facebook`s Instant Article will only be available to Apple users at first, but Facebook said they are looking to expand their platform to allow those who prefer other mobile operating system, a taste of the new feature.
The first media giants to have their articles on Facebook are BBC News, Spiegel, The Guardian, Bild, BuzzFeed, The National Geographic, The Atlantic and The New York Times and seeing the potential of this new feature, the French media also wants to jump on board the Instant Article wagon.
If you are worried how your favorite news conglomerate will be able to make a profit if it puts all its articles on Facebook, for free, you should know that Facebook allows the media to embed advertisements in their articles and keep all the profit or they can pay 30% of their profit to Facebook and use their add feature. Another feature available to publishers is that they will also be able to track their traffic and their content placed on Facebook.
However, the move is receiving strong criticism from media experts, who say that those who partner up with Facebook will come to regret it.
The critics believe that this feature give Facebook way too much power over which news will be available to the public and will lead to the demise of many media outlets.
The news feed formula created by Facebook is not without controversy and now many people fear that it will feed users only the news that they think will generate most traffic.
A suggestion to fight back against Facebook`s growing influence over what news people get to read, is for publishers to invest in their own platform which would allow their readers better access to the news they publish online.
All in all, the investments that Facebook seems to be willing to make in order to insure their users easy access to the news, is in the best interest of the users and at the end of the day, this is the ultimate goal.
Image Source: media fb
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