30% of Americans Get News From Facebook According To Pew Research Poll 194
An anonymous reader writes "According to a recent Pew Research poll a third of Americans get their news while they 'like' things. 'All in all, then, it may be the very incidental nature of the site that ultimately exposes more people to news there,' Pew said. 'Indeed, the more time one spends on the site, the more likely they are to get news there.'"
Applies to all events? (Score:5, Interesting)
Facebook makes me personally more engaged and thoughtful of all events, both news and personal.
It's amazing how I can see someone that I connected with on Facebook in real life and have a vague notion of what they are up to. It makes me feel connected. The same goes for news; my friends all read the new several times a day and therefore gives me a hand on the pulse of current events, even though that's not my intent.
Re:Applies to all events? (Score:5, Interesting)
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I've become much more libertarian since I came to slashdot. Nothing like having people tell you you're an idiot simply because you disagree with them on policy. Yeah, liberal elitism has turned me completely away from anything "socialism". Rarely have the people in ivory towers ever figured the world as it really is, only as it should be.
Re:Applies to all events? (Score:4, Funny)
I've become much more libertarian since I came to slashdot. Nothing like having people tell you you're an idiot simply because you disagree with them on policy.
You're an idiot for changing views just because someone disagrees with you.
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Thanks for proving why I changed my views. People like you, who hide behind the cloak of A/C comments. I didn't say I changed my views because people call me names. I said it doesn't help your cause. Which you seem to have completely missed. And if that is the best retort the the "elite" has to offer, it isn't much of one. Thanks for proving my case for me.
Re:Applies to all events? (Score:5, Funny)
"Elite Anonymous Coward". Wow - what a concept.
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Thanks for proving why I changed my views. People like you, who hide behind the cloak of A/C comments. I didn't say I changed my views because people call me names. I said it doesn't help your cause. Which you seem to have completely missed. And if that is the best retort the the "elite" has to offer, it isn't much of one. Thanks for proving my case for me.
Actually, given your sentence structure, you did say you changed your views because of people on slashdot calling you an idiot for your previous views. Maybe that wasn't your intention, but that is actually what you communicated. Now, giving you the benefit of the doubt that English is not your primary language, what were you trying to say?
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That is why we have a government. Once we make it so that bad behavior has no effect on the outcome of your life, we are sure that human nature will make sure the world is an awesome place to live.
Re:Applies to all events? (Score:5, Funny)
Short story is that Liberals understand a few things that are socially Libertarian, Conservatives understand a few things that are fiscally Libertarian. Libertarians get most things right except on the rare occasion they go bat shit crazy.
Re:Applies to all events? (Score:5, Insightful)
More accurately, an idiot is incapable of changing his views. Anyone with a working brain evaluates and considers news and opinions. Well presented views, news, and opinions SHOULD enable a person to change his own views. GP deserves a nod of respect, whether you agree with his opinions or not.
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Anyone with a working brain actively resists changing their mind. People shown to be wrong are more likely to remain dedicated to the wrong facts.
It takes someone with an open mind, or little emotional investment, to have their opinion changed by argument or facts. Or, if you grow to detest the source, like family or an ex.
Changing political leanings is very hard, but if it all you read it can become first familiar, then recognizable, then obvious.
You described what we expect of brains, not how they are use
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Ehhhh. "people shown to be wrong are more likely to be dedicated to the wrong facts" Yeah, maybe - I've witnessed that in real life. Usually, those people aren't especially intelligent. They may not be real dummies, but they aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, either. "it takes someone with an open mind, or little emotional investment, to have their opinion changed" Personally, I have little emotional investment in any set of facts. As a small child, I thought the sun and the moon chased each ot
Re:Applies to all events? (Score:5, Interesting)
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The funny thing is the large number of responses to the same comment/person that are contradictor
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You're currently mentally wanking over what you think other people think. Stop, please.
I personally don't care what you think other people think, and your misguided arrogance to presume that others will, while complaining about groupthink, is breathtaking.
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What I don't understand about modern day US libertarians is that the classical economic theory they seem to mostly endorse contradicts their own central principles, and even in relatively obvious ways. For instance, the Principle of Diminishing Marginal Utility in combination with sum-utilitarianism implies that monetary transfers from the rich to the poor increase overall utility, game theory can be used to show that free markets lead to cartels, there are Pareto efficient states in which one person owns a
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I've become much more libertarian since I came to slashdot. Nothing like having people tell you you're an idiot simply because you disagree with them on policy. Yeah, liberal elitism has turned me completely away from anything "socialism". Rarely have the people in ivory towers ever figured the world as it really is, only as it should be.
Okay, I'll bite. You used to believe that we are all in this together (socialism), but now profess every man/person for themself because people on slashdot, who you don't know and more importantly don't know their background have disagreed with you?
As for ivory towers, wouldn't you first have to figure out how the world actually is, before you can figure out how it should be? If you want to change your moral compass, that's fine, do so, but don't blame slashdot or anybody else. That choice is ultimately a
Re:Applies to all events? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The problem is the echo chaimber it creates. If you only get news your friends share, where do you get alternative viewpoints?
This begs the question of why someone would want to get alternative viewpoints. Most people don't want to be regularly exposed to ideas, beliefs, culture, etc., that conflicts with their own. It creates anxiety, anger, and/or dissociation. The begged question, by the way, is also a rhetorical question. But it doesn't change human nature, and we are talking about Facebook here.
The "social network" is not simply a conduit for human virtues -- it is equally a conduit for human failures. And let's be honest wit
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This begs the question
No, it doesn't. It raises the question. "Begging the question" is something else entirely.
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This begs the question of why someone would want to get alternative viewpoints. Most people don't want to be regularly exposed to ideas, beliefs, culture, etc., that conflicts with their own. It creates anxiety, anger, and/or dissociation.
This is the point. You never hear the news that you do not want to hear. You never hear about how bad high fructose corn syrup is because you do not know people who know how bad high fructose corn syrup is. You never hear about the Obama encroachments on civil rights because... Or you never hear about republican assults on women because...
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Exactly! That's why I get all my news on Slashdot.
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"But I want to get my news from my Facebook friend who is 56 years old and thinks we are inching each day toward an inevitable race war and quotes bible scripture three times a day!"
That will stay, but the young ones are leaving FB in droves. ;-)
It's uncool to be on a social network where your mom and peepaw hang out and want to be your 'friend'.
It will go down like Myspace and sooner or later Murdoch will buy it.
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It depends on the alternate viewpoints? Some topics don't have much in the way of alternate viewpoints. There isn't "common" ground on a lot of topics it either is or it is not.
Climate change... Everyone agrees that it is science. Everyeone agrees that it is obvious. Of course WHAT is obvious depends on which camp you are in, and you only see news that supports that camp.
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Academia often states that Wikipedia for example is a poor source, not because by definition it is a tertiary / secon
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News isn't what is reported, that is MSM. What is news is what nobody else has heard because they are too busy watching MSNBC and FOX. I've found that what shapes peoples opinions are the "news" they follow, the stuff that isn't really on anyone else's radar. Shallow people have no news other than what MSM tells them. They pick sides MSNBC / FOX and that is all they know.
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MSNBC and Fox get what, a few million viewers, max, per day? A tiny fraction of the population of the US.
Your false dichotomy is a direct result of your desire to feel like you know something that everyone else doesn't, or at least, most other people, all of whom you regard as being not as smart as yourself. It's a ridiculous point of view bred by your narcissism.
Lemme guess, you can also tell us about the real story behind 9/11, that only you and a few other really smart people know about. "Really smart
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I'm not a conspiracy advocate. I think 19 guys from mostly Saudi Arabia flew airplanes into buildings. What I find amazing are the people who think that GWB orchestrated it, while simultaneously believing he is the stupidest president ever; one the one hand he is pure evil genius and on the other hand a monkey is smarter than he is. Hilarious!
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I'm not a conspiracy advocate. I think 19 guys from mostly Saudi Arabia flew airplanes into buildings.
You think they told everyone about it first? Because otherwise IT WAS A CONSPIRACY.
conspiracy
plural noun: conspiracies
1. a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.
I am so sick of the word conspiracy being used to mean 'things that crazy people who are wrong believe in'. The correct word for that is delusion.
delusion
plural noun: delusions
1. an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rat
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Your false dichotomy is a direct result of your desire to feel like you know something that everyone else doesn't, or at least, most other people, all of whom you regard as being not as smart as yourself.
Most people don't make it difficult to feel more intelligent than them. Warmongers, rote memorization geniuses, people almost entirely without the aptitude to understand a given subject, people who toss away everyone's freedom for safety, people who continually vote for the 'lesser of two evils', and many more kinds of imbeciles make up most of the population.
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Yes. But that ususally is what's passed as news on non-news-sites. (I don't want to single out facebook here)
Subscribe to the Snopes-Rss feed to see what os presented there as "news".
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These being internet blogs, you can guess at the sort
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'feel connected' and 'are connected' are not the same thing.
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Re:Applies to all events? (Score:5, Funny)
For the last time, she dumped you in high school. You're no longer "connected".
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Facebook makes me personally more engaged and thoughtful of all events, both news and personal.
It's amazing how I can see someone that I connected with on Facebook in real life and have a vague notion of what they are up to. It makes me feel connected. The same goes for news; my friends all read the new several times a day and therefore gives me a hand on the pulse of current events, even though that's not my intent.
That might be good if what was displayed on FB was actually news, but usually it is opinion pieces put their based on what FB's analytics think you would find agreeable and from what they can then monetize. As such, you really aren't getting the pulse of current events, but instead, filtered information that is tailored towards your own points of view.
News, should be objective. FB's versions is not. Plain and simple. (although that doesn't mean FB is the one manipulating it, like certain national media outl
the other 40% (Score:5, Funny)
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He's the guy who gets his news from John Stewart and Colbert :-D
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Need to get a balanced news-diet:
* John Stewart
* Steven Colbert
* Bill Maher
* Wall Street Journal
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And some of us are right-minded individuals who get our news from The Daily Show.
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More accurately in this case 47% of Facebook users who are willing to do surveys on Facebook get their 'internet' news from Facebook shared likes
No. This survey was not conducted by Facebook, or on Facebook. It was conducted by the Pew Research Center, a reputable polling organization. Protip: If you don't have time before posting to read the article, or the summary, you should still at least read the headline.
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I did, did you not check where they did their research and how they conducted it. Although not complete in details indications where that Pew Research Centre did it on Face book. They also did not state why the research was conducted or who paid for it.
Explains a lot (Score:3, Insightful)
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I don't know whether or not it's possible to find good news sources on Facebook (I seriously doubt they would qualify as "good" to me.), but anyone who uses Facebook is most likely an absolute imbecile just for that. I'm not saying Facebook users are merely misinformed; I'm saying that any given Facebook user is very likely almost completely unintelligent.
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Not least because the survey question was "have you EVER seen news on Facebook".
There was not "a" survey question. The survey results/analysis are ten pages. I'm thinking you read the first page and thought that was it.
Tell me a source of information on Facebook that's impartial
Tell me a source of information that's impartial.
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That's a source of data, not information.
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maybe if you have only friends who post shit about karcrashingtons. in reality some post warez news, some post tech news, some post techfanboinews.. some post stories about gaza, some post stories about rockets shot from gaza.. some just post crazy ufo conspiracy shit.
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A GOOD thing? So called "news" links on Facebook are.....
I cant go on, this is too terribly obvious to point out the problems with "news" on Facebook
Doesn't that rather depend on your friends?
The news you want (Score:4, Insightful)
The great part about getting information from a social network is that you can precisely fine-tune what information you allow to seep into your personal bubble.
Re:The news you want (Score:5, Insightful)
The downside is the self-selection bias of online news makes for an echo chamber of one's existing beliefs, ensuring no facts that run counter to one's existing thoughts are presented. We're all better informed of the opinions we agree with, but as ignorant as ever of those holding opposing views.
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Hmm. Well, I guess that's why I don't use Facebook. All my friends have different viewpoints on many subjects. Some align and have caveats, others ascribe different reasons. We all care about different things. For instance, as a cyberneticist I'm keenly aware of the degree of suffering my food endures. Unlike my idealist vegan friend who's largely clueless about being an evolved product of our environments, neuronal density of livestock, and the fuzzy complexity threshold of sentience, I simply apprec
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Good journalism is about to defeat your personal bubble, and let enter information you would not have thought as relevant.
Getting "the news you want" means you just reinforce each days your beliefs and biases.
summary says 'ever' (Score:5, Informative)
As in ""Overall, about half of adult Facebook users, or 47 percent, 'ever' get news there," Pew said in its report. "That amounts to 30 percent of the population."
So if you see a news story on Facebook, once in a while, i.e. often enough to remember that you did it, ever, you're in the 30%. It's a deceptive summary.
The referenced article goes on to say, "Just 4 percent said Facebook is the most important way they get news"
Carry on with your silliness.
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Misinformation? In a news post? No way!
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As in ""Overall, about half of adult Facebook users, or 47 percent, 'ever' get news there,"
What does this mean? 53% of Facebook users never read their wall? Or they do but none of their friends post news stories? They have very poor memories? The question confused them?
Facebook won't let others access information like which news stories are the most posted, but if they did it would actually make a decent news aggregator, without implicit editorial bias. One of my favorite news feeds used to be "Yahoo
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US news media are a joke (Score:5, Informative)
Why not get your news from Facebook? Almost every source of news in the US spins and/or censors coverage for someone's political gain. If you're going to hear lies about current events, you might as well hear them from your friends.
Re:US news media are a joke (Score:4, Insightful)
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I read news feeds from around the world and post comments to crackbook about them with links to the articles.
The US news is the *last* thing I read, because it is the *least* informative and the *most biased.*
For example: Not one word about the anti-NSA protests in US media. Still. Yet there were articles about the protests from Al Jazeera, Russia Times, and France 24.
I pity Americans. You're led around like sheep and you're too naval-gazing to realize how misinformed you are.
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Re:US news media are a joke (Score:5, Informative)
For example: Not one word about the anti-NSA protests in US media. Still.
Your news gathering skills are....poor to say the least.
USA Today: Anti-NSA rally attracts thousands to march in Washington http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/26/nsa-dc-rally/3241417/ [usatoday.com]
Huffington Post: NSA 'Stop Watching Us' Protest Draws Thousands In Washington http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/26/nsa-stop-watching-us_n_4166640.html [huffingtonpost.com]
US News and Word Report: Edward Snowden Endorses D.C. Protest Against NSA in Rare Public Statement http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/24/edward-snowden-endorses-dc-protest-against-nsa-in-rare-public-statement [usnews.com]
Christian Science Monitor: NSA Washington: March against surveillance and a call from Edward Snowden http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/1026/NSA-Washington-March-against-surveillance-and-a-call-from-Edward-Snowden-photos [csmonitor.com]
CNN: Anti-NSA rally targets Washington http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/26/anti-nsa-rally-targets-washington/ [cnn.com]
Fox News: Hundreds rally in DC to protest NSA http://video.foxnews.com/v/2772548586001/hundreds-rally-in-dc-to-protest-nsa/ [foxnews.com]
NBC News: Hundreds march at anti-NSA rally in DC http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/53383405 [nbcnews.com]
CBS News: Protesters March For Investigation Into Mass NSA Spying http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/10/26/protesters-march-for-investigation-into-mass-nsa-spying/ [cbslocal.com]
ABC News: NSA Spying Threatens to Hamper US Foreign Policy http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/nsa-spying-threatens-hamper-us-foreign-policy-20689770 [go.com]
Washington Post: Techies concerned over NSA surveillance will march in D.C., proclaiming ‘Stop Watching Us’ http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/techies-concerned-over-nsa-surveillance-will-march-in-dc-proclaiming-stop-watching-us/2013/10/25/5bedb546-3da7-11e3-b7ba-503fb5822c3e_story.html [washingtonpost.com]
This is where I get tired of pasting, but I assure you the list goes on and on.
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If it doesn't make the front page, it's not news.
I skim the sites, not dig through them.
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Estimates varied on the size of the march, with organizers saying more than 2,000 attended.
You expect a 2000 person protest to get on the front page?
The British Stop the War Coalition (StWC) held a protest in London which it claimed was the largest political demonstration in the city's history. Police estimated attendance as well in excess of 750,000 people[33] and the BBC estimated that around a million attended.
That didn't help anything, why do you think 2000 people at Washington would?
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They are worse now than any time in the last 30 years.
Fast News Facebook Friends (Score:3)
It's not all that different from Slashdot ... (Score:5, Insightful)
My (admittedly limited) experience on Facebook suggest that people who are engaged with current events will link to stories, and others will comment on them or like them. That doesn't seem to be all that different from what happens on Slashdot or forums. The difference is in the depth of that layman commentary and how well you know the people involved in the discussion.
So it's not that Facebook is the source of the news. I would be horrified if that was the case. Facebook is simply being used to connect people to the news, and those links may be to more reputable sources. There is reason to be concerned about the bias that a person finds within their own social circles, but you get a lot of bias from sites like Slashdot and forums anyhow.
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I think the real difference is that people can post pretty much anything to their Facebook news stream, including things that are blatantly, provably false. (Apparently it's part of the TOS for facebook users to post at least one tired old hoax a day or have your account suspended. Or be attacked by butt spiders. Or something.) At least what gets posted to Slashdot as news stories goes through some cursory editorial review, and comments that can't be backed up get called bullshit by other users. If we
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At least what gets posted to Slashdot as news stories goes through some cursory editorial review
You must be new here.
Point conceded. But it's all relative, right? I haven't yet seen the "giant radioactive fukushima squid" story wash up on Slashdot yet.
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No. There IS editorial review.
At least the submitted articles are ran against a regEx to check if the URL contains "theonion" and other parody sites.
Which is what facebook doesn't do. Or why else would snopes have to debunk "news" that Obama in reality is a islamist communist hippie war-criminal who had his face surgically changed to avoid prosecution?
Not from Facebook (Score:3)
The pollsters missed it by the phrasing of their question. People aren't getting their news from Facebook. They're getting news from their friends and people they're following, who happen to be posting links to that news to Facebook. The difference is subtle but important. If someone goes "Oh, all we need to do is get our stories to appear on Facebook.", they're going to have their whole push fall on it's face because nobody's reading their articles. They'd need to get their articles in front of the people who lots of other people follow first, and make those articles interesting enough that those people post links to them for their followers to see. That's more complicated than just getting your story carried by a half-dozen major outlets.
Re:Not from Facebook (Score:4, Insightful)
That the news you see on your facebook feed has to have been deemed important by one of your friends (or one of their friends) is a very good point. Where this breaks down is that your friends (or at least, *my* friends) will believe anything. Including that microwaved water will kill plants and that keying in your PIN backwards will call the police. Taken holistically, it creates a very bizarre picture of the world.
agree but more (Score:2)
you're right on here:
but you missed directly from the News Company (CBS, MSNBC, NYTImes, etc)
the News orgs themselves post links to their stories...no reposting by individual 'friends' needed
I say this b/c a friend of mine uses facebook.com as essentailly a news aggregator and event calendar for rock shows and new films...his identity
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Back in my days, we used to have Google Reader for that.
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That's the thing, though: none of the news stories in my feed were posted by those major outlets. They're posted by other people I know, linking back to those major outlets. If News Corp. posts something, relatively few people will see it. It's only if those people repost it and other people are interested enough to want to re-repost it that it spreads and a lot of people see it. If that doesn't happen, odds on most people will never see it no matter what News Corp. does.
There is more news than can ever be parsed (Score:2)
There are more news stories printed each day than any individual person could ever reasonably be aware of. Some sort of filter is needed, and, honestly, 'things my friends consider important', i.e., FB links, is a fairly good way to discriminate. If news is interesting/significant to people you share commonality with, it's likely to be interesting/significant to you. (Hence, Slashdot, where all of us nerds aggregate around 'News for nerds'.)
I find most aggregation services fairly bad at this. I actually
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There are more news stories printed each day than any individual person could ever reasonably be aware of. Some sort of filter is needed, and, honestly, 'things my friends consider important', i.e., FB links, is a fairly good way to discriminate.
It used to be until tons of old classmates from elementary school showed up on my facebook account pretty much devaluating the meaning of "friend"
In other news.. (Score:2)
Political Agenda (Score:2)
I get some news from Facebook and I also post some (usually political) news on Facebook. Often Facebook provides you with news you wouldn't have otherwise read (not big enough to be on a major news site, unpopular, etc). You also have the advantage that you know your friends political views, which makes it much easier to tell if they are spinning something.
Pew Research... (Score:2)
Pew Public Relations & Human Affect Control (Score:2)
I totally agree...Pew and virtually all mainstream 'polling' companies are just awful
IMHO the entire way people are polled about things like what they watch (Nielsen ratings), their political views (take your pick...), and their attitudes on technology (Pew in TFA)...hell, even SoundScan, which reports music industry sales figures, is gamed out by the industry & is not representative at all of what music people obtain and listen to...
Go down the line...they all use 1950s methodology juiced up...sort of
from traditional news in the f/b feed (Score:2)
facebook.com is does not employ reporters...they don't have a DC bureau...facebook.com does not report news
the news organizations (NBC, CBS, Fox, MSNBC, NYTimes, WSJ, etc etc)...**they** provide the news content that is viewed in the news feed
facebook, at best, can be seen as an aggregator of news content
NYTimes, CBS, your local paper...**they** report the news
facebook's news feed is an aggregator
ugh...IMHO this is just pointless to research this aspect from this perspective...a better research topic which
Comedy Central (Score:2)
I get my news from:
- Jon Stewart
- Stephen Colbert
- My personalized Google News page
- A "Liberal Left" friend of mine (on FB) who apparently likes HuffPo (more of an entertainment feed than news)
- www.icanhascheezeburger.com (because FU, I like cats)
This just in... (Score:2)
Grumpy Cat hates everything.... ... You friends need you help tend their farm in Farmville...
and
You may already be a winner (but if you spend the whole day logged into Facebook, we severely doubt it.)
"News"? (Score:2)
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You can fix stupid. Generally it takes time and understand and you looking in the mirror often. Often enough, the problem with stupid starts within.