In light of nuclear fallout, Facebook wants to revitalize local news

Picture this. You're a top general of the most powerful and advanced military in the world. Yesterday, you and the other top generals gave the order to drop a nuclear bomb on a global city, and today you are shown photos of the aftermath of your decision. 

You're ordered to give a press conference in front of the world explaining your inhumane and destructive act; however, in your speech, you don't apologize nor acknowledge the victims. Instead, you offer $300 million to the city you helped decimate and promise to work to revitalize the area. 

Hello Facebook!

In January 2019, the social media company announced they would invest $300 million over three years in local news. The money will be used to: 

1. Help local outlets design and execute subscription models ($20MM);
2. Create a grant program with the Pulitzer Center for local reporting projects ($5MM);
3. Investment in Report for America - An initiative to recruit journalists to cover under-reported stories ($2MM);
4. Other local outlet support programs.

"The investment in time and money is a significant expansion of a plan to help newsrooms in the U.S. and abroad create and sustain viable business models to survive," the company said.

Yes, and after contributing to a local news nuclear apocalypse, this investment surely will help local news regain its edge...But let's not pretend this investment was made for moral reasons. FB needs quality and engaging content, and they certainly don't like the idea that their platform has contributed to the impending local news extinction.

They also have been getting crushed in the media since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, so they need some positive headlines. 

Regardless, March for FB was abysmal. FB's market cap lost $37B from March 11 - March 18 due in large part to a slew of negative headlines (loss of top executives, 14-hour platform outage, new ad boycott, etc.). 

Let's also not forget to mention that the recent New Zealand mosque shooting live stream was viewed over 4,000 times on FB before they took it down -- Content monitoring is a topic for another day, but FB, Youtube, and Twitter have all failed miserably thus far (but at least content moderator jobs seem joyous...wait).

Facebook's History of 'Supporting' Local Journalism

This investment in local journalism comes after their 2018 announcement stating they would build a new section of its app to curate local news called Today In. The idea was "to create a special section where local news and events would stand out among the crowd."

Unfortunately, FB started realizing a significant problem with this plan: local news has been decimated, and many parts of the country don't have local news. And when they realized how bad the situation was, they figured they would throw money at the problem.

The results are bleak but unsurprising. As stated in FB's blog post released 3/18/19: "About one in three users in the U.S. live in places where we cannot find enough local news on Facebook to launch Today In." 

Interestingly, they provided a map to display the local news landscape.

As shown, rural areas in Texas, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri and the Dakotas produce little to no local news stories. Seems safe to say that FB scrapped the Today In plan...

Okay, but why does this matter for us? Glad you asked. According to research by UNC-Chapel Hill, one in five papers has shut down over the past 15-years. This comes at a net loss of 1,800 papers. We all know how statistics remove the human element. So let's acknowledge the victims.

Thousands of journalists have lost their jobs. Not only has their economic and societal situation taken a hit, but now towns all across the country have lost their local reporting arm.

From a community engagement standpoint, this is terrible. How are we supposed to know about the local school board's decision to cut after-school programs? How are we supposed to know that your local politicians have defrauded his/her constituents? How will the local populace remain engaged in their communities?

I'm not saying the entirety of these things go away without a local paper. And tbh, I wasn't truly interested in my local papers (unless the story was about me!). But communities will continue to suffer from the decline of local journalism. And Facebook's attempt to throw money at the problem - while positive in the short term - will not be enough to undo the nuclear fallout they helped unleash.

This article was featured in my newsletter, Dallas Media Explained

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In Dallas Media Explained, I write about:

1. How social media companies (such as Facebook & Twitter) have destroyed our local news.
2. The history of the Dallas Morning News and its (along other prominent media orgs) recent adjustments to combat the digital media shift.
3. The inherent biases ingrained in the local Dallas media, national media, and how it impacts elections, business, sports, and local development projects.

Those are some categories I plan to focus on but this list will expand as we learn more about how our media impacts Dallas.

I have opinions. And Dallas Media Explained will be full of them. And maybe you'll like them and find them insightful...Or you'll get emotional due to your disagreement and unsubscribe in disgust. Either way, thanks for being here.

About The Author

My name is Noah Starr. Originally from Jericho, New York, I studied at the University of Texas at Austin and currently live in Dallas full-time working for Stonebriar Commercial Finance.

In August of 2016, I launched Truth Serum History – a media company that aims to elicit a new age of historical enlightenment. We currently have 25,000 followers on Instagram and release free content each day. Follow me on twitter @NoahStarr95 or connect with me on LinkedIn.