Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has entered into a partnership with ABC News to launch Facecast, which is the first daily newscast made for social media and will be hosted by an evening news anchor. David Muir will be the news anchor of Facecast and will anchor episodes that will be 60 seconds long and can be viewed on World News Tonight‘s Facebook page.
A step towards a bigger objective
ABC News will talk about breaking news, economic stories and sports using video, photos and infographics just like a standard newscast. In the debut episode, Muir will talk about the Star Wars trailer, the Saint Louis Rams’ “hands up” pose and a few other topics as well.
World News Tonight Executive Producer Almin Karamehmedovic said, “We are grateful that our audience engages with David Muir and World News Tonight on social media all day long.”
The social networking site is determined to become a personal “newspaper” and convey all major daily events and happenings around the world. No doubt the company will get a boost with the ABC newscast, but as for traditional news media, which are already in the red, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s announcement will only add to the problems.
Facebook a major source of news
Sources of news have evolved over time, and social media platforms have become one of the most important sources for users. Previously, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked about how he wants users’ News Feeds to be a personalized newspaper. The strong point of the News Feeds is that users can personalize it according to their needs and filter the content they are interested in. News Feeds could be customized to prompt about world news, community events and updates about friends or family by mixing them together.
Ken Paulson, a former editor of USA Today who is now dean of communications at Middle Tennessee State University, believes it is a different approach to newspapering and added that he sees it as neither good nor bad but as something not possible for traditional newspapers.
A new study from the Pew Research Center notes that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is a major source of news traffic for news websites and also a source of news for at least 30% of Americans.