“We’ve heard from journalists that they want an easy way to make Facebook a more vital part of their newsgathering with the ability to surface relevant trends, photos, videos, and posts on Facebook and Instagram for use in their storytelling and reporting”, he wrote in a blog post announcing the new tools. It has a list of trending topics and another list of “emerging” topics that are gaining in popularity.
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But looking beyond Facebook’s fascination with becoming a media hub, the launch of Signal shows that the social network is finding more ways to use its data on a broader scale. Signal’s APIs are embeddable, which means they could also be used for content feeds or as a way to display coverage of an event.
The “Signal” news curation tool launched by Facebook is largely aimed at Twitter which already has a tool – called “Curator” – specifically for journalists.
As everyone in Silicon Valley looks to cozy up to the media, Facebook has released new tools to help journalists find, organize and publish content found on its extensive social network.
What the company actually wants is for posts to be as widely embedded as possible around the web, especially because it encourages famous people to share moments on Facebook.
“Social news gathering has been happening for a while”, said Andy Mitchell, Facebook’s director of news and global media partnerships.
Journalists can curate content as well, embedding it into their own broadcasts. Last week Facebook introduced its Mentions app to all of its verified profiles, allowing journalists and celebrities the opportunity to broadcast live video streams and create posts that only go out to their followers.
The platform is expected to attract even more viewers through Signal, because users will be able to keep an eye on the newest trending articles.
Journalists will also be allowed to access public figures based on their mentioning on Facebook, and it includes “real-time conversations” involving politicians, authors, actors, musicians, athletes and others known personalities.
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The tool is available to journalists at no cost.
