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Facebook Wants To Become Your Personal ‘Newspaper’

by Milicent Atieno

Facebook Wants To Become Your Personal ‘Newspaper’

Facebook Wants To Become Your Personal ‘Newspaper’The conventional newspaper models are set to go up in competition against Facebook Inc. to deliver news to the people. According to a publication by Taipei Times, Facebook’s move to become the personal newspaper to its more than a billion users spell more frustrations to the already struggling news media.

The giant social network has grown to become a very vital source of news and information. Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook Inc. told a forum that he intended to make Facebook’s newsfeed, “the perfect personalized newspaper for every person in the world.”

Zuckerberg pointed out that unlike the conventional newspaper that avail all types of news to virtually all types of readers. Facebook is going to employ the personal information it has on the users to bring them more relevant and new tailor-made to suit their interest. Simply put, the social network can customize its news feed to fit the interest of the user, and deliver a mix of international news, community events, and updates.

The former editor at USA Today, Ken Paulson was quoted saying, “It’s a different approach to newspapering. It’s neither good nor bad, but it’s something a traditional newspaper can’t do.

Unlike the conventional newspaper where editors determine what reaches the readers, in Facebook’s ‘newspaper’ this role will be played by algorithm. The algorithms will be determining what contents is likely to be of interest to every individual.

Alan Mutter, a consultant for digital media ventures said, “It’s intimate, it’s relevant, it’s extraordinary timely and it’s about you. That’s more than any newspaper can do.”

A journalism professor Nikki Usher, at the George Washington University, said Facebook can use algorithms to configure its news feed, by using the tens of thousands of data they have on users.

Facebook has all the data to tell you what all of your friends are reading, so you have a better chance of seeing thing that you are interested in. The reason Facebook has so many engineers and data scientists, is to continually make the algorithm better. The algorithm gets stronger as more people use it.

You can read more on this from Taipei Times by following this link.

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