The influence of Facebook and its algorithm changes on journalism and fake news
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12795/Ambitos.2024.i63.06Keywords:
Facebook, Meta, Journalism, Algorithms, Fake News, Social Media, Political ManipulationAbstract
Facebook is the world’s largest social network (in 2023 it had 3.03 billion users). The algorithm that controls its News Feed - the publication feed - is one of the most relevant media formulas in the world. The research question of this paper attempts to answer whether there is a relationship between newspapers’ content decisions and the annual changes in Facebook’s algorithm. The first phase of this research consisted of mapping, for the first time, how Facebook repeatedly modified its algorithm with respect to the News Feed. A period of 11 years (from 2008 to 2019) was analyzed. Once each change was detected, these modifications were contrasted with data extracted from 122,869 publications of the 20 most important newspapers in Spain according to the EGM during those 11 years. The objective was to find the possible relationship between a change in the algorithm and a change in journalistic content. As a conclusion we showed that between 2008 and 2019 there were changes in how newspapers select content and correlate with changes in the algorithm. Another conclusion is that the modification of these algorithms influences politics and the creation of echo chambers that encourage fake news.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Adweek. (2007a). Inside Facebook, NFO (News Feed Optimization) is the new SEO. Adweek. https://www.adweek.com/digital/inside-facebook-nfo-is-the-new-seo/
Adweek. (2007b). Facebook’s News Feed Knows What You Did Last Summer. Adweek. https://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook%e2%80%99s-news-feed-knows-what-you-did-last-summer/
Babu, A., Liu, A., & Zhang, J. (2017). New Updates to Reduce Clickbait Headlines. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/05/news-feed-fyi-new-updates-to-reduce-clickbait-headlines/
Backstrom, L. (2013). News Feed FYI: A Window Into News Feed. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/News-Feed-FYI-A-Window-Into-News-Feed
Backstrom, L. (2016). Helping Make Sure You Don’t Miss Stories from Friends. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/06/news-feed-fyi-helping-make-sure-you-dont-miss-stories-from-friends/
Bakshy, E. (2012). Rethinking Information Diversity in Networks. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2012/01/rethinking-information-diversity-in-networks/
Bapna, A., & Park, S. (2017). Updating How We Account For Video Completion Rates. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/01/news-feed-fyi-updating-how-we-account-for-video-completion-rates/
Bradley, T. (2009). Facebook Makeover: The Good, the Bad, and the Backlash. PCWorld. https://www.pcworld.com/article/174313/faebook_makeover_good_bad_backlash.html
Carden, M. (2018). Responding to The Guardian: A Fact-Check on Fact-Checking. Meta Newsroom. https://about.fb.com/news/2018/12/guardian-fact-check/
Carral, U., Tuñón, J., & Elías, C. (2023). Populism, cyberdemocracy and disinformation: Analysis of the social media strategies of the French extreme right in the 2014 and 2019 European elections. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, 10(1). Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01507-2
Chowdhry, A. (2015). Facebook Changes News Feed Algorithm To Prioritize Content From Friends Over Pages. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2015/04/23/facebook-changes-news-feed-algorithm-to-prioritize-content-from-friends-over-pages/#1a6f4b48127a
Coens, J. (2012). See Posts That Matter to You. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2012/03/see-posts-that-matter-to-you/
Dickinson, B. (2012). This Is The Social Graph Explained. Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/explainer-what-exactly-is-the-social-graph-2012-3?IR=T
D’Onfro. Jillian (2016). 10 years ago Facebook had “the most inglorious launch moment in history” but it changed everything. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-news-feed-launch-2016-9
El-Arini, K., & Tang, J. (2014). Click-baiting. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/08/news-feed-fyi-click-baiting/
Elías, C. (2015). El Selfie de Galileo. Software social, político e intelectual del siglo XXI (primera). Grup Editorial 62, S.L.U.
Elías, C. (2019). Science on the Ropes. Decline of Scientific Culture in the Era of Fake News Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12978-1
Facebook. (n.d.). Machine Learning. Facebook Research. Consultado el 19 de Mayo de 2019. https://research.fb.com/category/machine-learning/
Facebook. (2007a). Facebook Develops Network Portals, New Inbox and Updates Site Design. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2007/04/facebook-develops-network-portals-new-inbox-and-updates-site-design/
Facebook. (2007b). Facebook Unveils Facebook Ads. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2007/11/facebook-unveils-facebook-ads/
Facebook. (2008a). Facebook Expands Power of Platform Across the Web and Around the World. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2008/07/facebook-expands-power-of-platform-across-the-web-and-around-the-world/
Facebook. (2008b). Facebook Unveils Next Evolution of Site Design. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2008/07/facebook-unveils-next-evolution-of-site-design/
Facebook. (2014). Introducing Facebook Media. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/09/introducing-facebook-media/
Facebook. (2017). For Video, Intent and Repeat Viewership Matter. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/12/news-feed-fyi-for-video-intent-repeat-viewership-matter/
Facebook. (2019a). Company Info. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/
Facebook. (2019b). What Is Facebook Doing to Address the Challenges It Faces? About Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2019/02/addressing-challenges/
Fenoll, V. (2022). Political communications on Facebook and populism. The 2019 European Parliament election in Spain. Communicatio Socialis, 35(3). Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.15581/003.35.3.91-103
Fitzpatrick, B. (2007). Brad’s Thoughts on the Social Graph. Bradfitz. http://bradfitz.com/social-graph-problem/
Gleicher, N. (2019a). Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from Russia. About Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2019/01/removing-cib-from-russia/
Gleicher, N. (2019b). Taking Down Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior in Indonesia. About Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2019/01/taking-down-coordinated-inauthentic-behavior-in-indonesia/
Grove, J. (2009). 3 Key Reasons Facebook Bought FriendFeed. Mashable. https://mashable.com/2009/08/10/reasons-facebook-friendfeed/
Hardiman, A., & Brown, C. (2018). More Local News on Facebook, Globally. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/03/news-feed-fyi-more-local-news-on-facebook-globally/
Hughes, T., Smith, J., & Leavitt, A. (2018). Helping People Better Assess the Stories They See in News Feed. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/news-feed-fyi-more-context/
Kacholia, V., & Ji, M. (2013). Helping You Find More News to Talk About. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2013/12/news-feed-fyi-helping-you-find-more-news-to-talk-about/
Lada, A., Li, J., & Ding, S. (2017). New Signals to Show You More Authentic and Timely Stories. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/01/news-feed-fyi-new-signals-to-show-you-more-authentic-and-timely-stories/
Lafferty, J. (2013). Facebook Announces ‘Story Bumping,’ And Other Small Changes To News Feed Algorithm. Adweek. https://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-announces-story-bumping-and-other-small-changes-to-news-feed-algorithm/
Leathern, R., & Chang, B. (2017). Addressing Cloaking So People See More Authentic Posts. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/08/news-feed-fyi-addressing-cloaking-so-people-see-more-authentic-posts/
Lin, J.-R., & Guo, S. (2017). Reducing Links to Low-Quality Web Page Experiences. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/05/reducing-links-to-low-quality-web-page-experiences/
Lyons, T. (2018). Increasing Our Efforts to Fight False News. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/increasing-our-efforts-to-fight-false-news/
Lysak, S., Cremedas, M., & Wolf, J. (2012). Facebook and Twitter in the Newsroom. Electronic News, 6(4), 187–207. https://doi.org/10.1177/1931243112466095
McCarthy, C. (2010). Facebook F8: One graph to rule them all. CNET. https://www.cnet.com/culture/facebook-f8-one-graph-to-rule-them-all/
Miller, D. (2019). Updates to Video Ranking. About Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2019/05/updates-to-video-ranking/
Miners, Z. (2014). Facebook will be mostly video in 5 years, Zuckerberg says. PCWorld. https://www.pcworld.com/article/2844852/facebook-will-be-mostly-video-in-5-years-zuckerberg-says.html
Mitchell, A. (2014). Announcing FB Newswire, Powered by Storyful. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/04/announcing-fb-newswire-powered-by-storyful/
Mitchell, A., Kiley, J., Gottfried, J., & Guskin, E. (2013). The Role of News on Facebook. Pew Research Center, Journalism and Media. https://www.journalism.org/2013/10/24/the-role-of-news-on-facebook/
Mosseri, A. (2016a). Addressing Hoaxes and Fake News. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/12/news-feed-fyi-addressing-hoaxes-and-fake-news/
Mosseri, A. (2016b). Building a Better News Feed for You. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/06/building-a-better-news-feed-for-you/
Mosseri, A. (2017). Showing More Informative Links in News Feed. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/06/news-feed-fyi-showing-more-informative-links-in-news-feed/
Mosseri, A. (2018a). Bringing People Closer Together. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/01/news-feed-fyi-bringing-people-closer-together/
Mosseri, A. (2018b). Helping Ensure News on Facebook Is From Trusted Sources. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/01/trusted-sources/
Muraleedharan, S. (2017). Introducing Snooze to Give You More Control Of Your News Feed. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/12/news-feed-fyi-snooze/
Muraleedharan, S. (2018). Keyword Snooze: A New Way to Help Control Your News Feed. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/keyword-snooze-a-new-way-to-help-control-your-news-feed/
Newton, C. (2019). A new Facebook News tab is starting to roll out in the United States. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/25/20930664/facebook-news-tab-launch-united-states-test
O’Reilly, L. (2014). SocialBakers Finds Facebook Videos Overtook YouTube Videos Posted on By Facebook Pages For The First Time. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-video-v-youtube-market-share-data-2014-12?IR=T
Ostrow, A. (2009). Facebook Launching New Real-Time Homepage. Mashable. https://mashable.com/2009/03/04/facebook-homepage-real-time/?europe=true
Owens, E., & Vickrey, D. (2014). Showing More Timely Stories from Friends and Pages. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/09/news-feed-fyi-showing-more-timely-stories-from-friends-and-pages/
Owens, E., & Weinsberg, U. (2015). Showing Fewer Hoaxes. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/01/news-feed-fyi-showing-fewer-hoaxes/
Parker, P. (2011). Facebook Adds “Subscribe” Button, Other News Feed Options. Search Engine. https://searchengineland.com/facebook-adds-subscribe-button-other-news-feed-options-92816
Peterson, T. (2012). Another Agency Claims Facebook Algorithm Changes. Adweek. https://www.adweek.com/digital/another-agency-claims-facebook-algorithm-changes-144405/
Peysakhovich, A., & Hendrix, K. (2016). Further Reducing Clickbait in Feed. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/08/news-feed-fyi-further-reducing-clickbait-in-feed/
Protalinski, E. (2012). Facebook starts displaying ads in the News Feed. ZDNet. https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-starts-displaying-ads-in-the-news-feed/
Rait, Z. (2011). Introducing the Subscribe Button. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2011/09/introducing-the-subscribe-button/
Rosen, G. (2019). Protecting Facebook Live From Abuse and Investing in Manipulated Media Research. About Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2019/05/protecting-live-from-abuse/
Salonen, M., Olbertz-Siitonen, M., Uskali, T., & Laaksonen, S. M. (2023). Conversational Gatekeeping—Social Interactional Practices of Post-Publication Gatekeeping on Newspapers’ Facebook Pages. Journalism Practice, 17(9). Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2022.2034520
Sethuraman, R. (2019). Why Am I Seeing This? We Have an Answer for You. About Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2019/03/why-am-i-seeing-this/
Sethuraman, R., Vallmitjana, J., & Levin, J. (2019). Using Surveys to Make News Feed More Personal. About Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2019/05/more-personalized-experiences/
Silverman, H., & Huang, L. (2017). Fighting Engagement Bait on Facebook. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/12/news-feed-fyi-fighting-engagement-bait-on-facebook/
Simo, F. (2014). The Latest on Facebook Video. Meta Newsroom. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/09/the-latest-on-facebook-video/
Slodkowski, A. (2018). Facebook bans Myanmar army chief, others in unprecedented move. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-facebook/facebook-bans-myanmar-army-chief-others-in-unprecedented-move-idUSKCN1LC0R7
Song, A. (2014). Showing Stories About Topics You Like. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/02/news-feed-fyi-showing-stories-about-topics-you-like/
Struhar, C. (2014). Finding Popular Conversations on Facebook. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/01/finding-popular-conversations-on-facebook/
Su, S. (2017). New Test With Related Articles. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/04/news-feed-fyi-new-test-with-related-articles/
Suárez, G. (19-11-23). Mapa para entender la resistencia de Pedro Sánchez: cómo una década de caos infinito explica su investidura. El Mundo. https://www.elmundo.es/papel/historias/2023/11/18/65577bcbfdddff2f838b457a.html
Tas, S., & Chiraphadhanakul, T. V. (2015). Using Surveys to Better Understand Viral Stories. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/12/news-feed-fyi-using-surveys-to-better-understand-viral-stories/
Tonkelowitz, M. (2011). Interesting News, Any Time You Visit. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2011/09/interesting-news-any-time-you-visit/
Tosswill, C. (2015). How the Reactions Test Will Impact Ranking. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/10/news-feed-fyi-how-the-reactions-test-will-impact-ranking/
Wang, M., & Zhuo, Y. (2015). Taking into Account More Actions on Videos. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/06/news-feed-fyi-taking-into-account-more-actions-on-videos/
Warman, M. (2013). Facebook hashtags #introduced. Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/10117483/Facebook-hashtags-introduced.html
Wasserman, T. (2013). Facebook Tweaks Algorithm for Ads in the News Feed. Mashable. https://mashable.com/2013/09/27/facebook-algorithm-ads/?europe=true#UrNkNGBRagqc
Welch, B., & Zhang, X. (2014). Showing Better Videos. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/06/news-feed-fyi-showing-better-videos/
Widman, J. (n.d.). EdgeRank. Consultado el 15 de julio de 2018. http://edgerank.net/
Yu, A., & Tas, S. (2015). Taking Into Account Time Spent on Stories. Meta Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/06/news-feed-fyi-taking-into-account-time-spent-on-stories/
Zhang, C., & Chen, S. (2016). Using Qualitative Feedback to Show Relevant Stories | Facebook Newsroom. https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/02/news-feed-fyi-using-qualitative-feedback-to-show-relevant-stories/
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Daniel Gonzalez
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Ámbitos. Revista Internacional de Comunicación is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available at no charge to the user or their institution. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, distribute, print, search or link to the full text of articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without seeking prior permission from the publisher or author. This definition of open access is in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI).
Unless otherwise noted, all content in the electronic edition is distributed under a "Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License". You can consult the informative version and legal text of the licence here. This should be expressly stated in this way where necessary.
In case of acceptance of the manuscript, the authors cede the rights of the work for its publication to Ámbitos. Revista Internacional de Comunicación under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license contract (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The authors retain copyright and third parties are authorised to copy, distribute and make use of the work, provided they comply with the terms and conditions set out in the licence
- Cite the authorship and the original source of publication (journal, publisher and URL of the work).
- Do not use them for commercial purposes.
- If you remix, transform or create from the material, you must release your contributions under the same license as the original.
More information can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.es
- Abstract 1198
- PDF (Español (España)) 209
- XML (Español (España)) 295
