In a drive to make you feel more connected through Facebook, the social media giant has altered its algorithm so that you’ll see much more local news crop up in your feed. Right now, the change has only been made for users in the United States but the company plans to roll out the update in other countries, later this year, too.
In a statement, the company explains how it determines local news, it said:
“We identify local publishers as those whose links are clicked on by readers in a tight geographic area. If a story is from a publisher in your area, and you either follow the publisher’s Page or your friend shares a story from that outlet, it might show up higher in News Feed.”
Now that the update has been applied in the U.S., Facebook believes that local news outlets will see an uptick in terms of the number of readers they’re getting due to their content being prioritised. Bumping this content up the News Feed is just one measure that Facebook has taken to improve the service; it announced that users will see more content from friends and more content from “high-quality” news sources.
Facebook has also launched ‘Today In’ across six cities in the U.S. with plans to expand it in the coming months. Today In is a dedicated section of Facebook which connects people to news and information in their community.
Source: Facebook