Facebook launches Journalism Project to promote informed learning & training online

Facebook has launched the “Journalism Project” to collaborate with news organisations, publishers and researchers to work on how to equip people with the knowledge they need to be informed readers in the digital age. The blog reads,

“Facebook is a new kind of platform and we want to do our part to enable people to have meaningful conversations, to be informed and to be connected to each other. We know that our community values sharing and discussing ideas and news, and as a part of our service, we care a great deal about making sure that a healthy news ecosystem and journalism can thrive.”

The Facebook Journalism Project will work in three ways:

1) Collaborative development of news products

Facebook will work on new formats, in addition to Live 360, such as to present packages of stories to the most engaged readers on Facebook. These packages of instant articles will be a great way for promoting businesses. Facebook will work on supporting local news and promoting independent media. It will get inputs from newsrooms and journalists and work together to shape what local news on Facebook could look like.

Facebook engineers will host sessions with developers from news organizations to collaborate to identify opportunities and hack solutions under Hackathons. Facebook will conduct meetings with publishers globally and will keep sponsoring important journalism and publishing conferences.

2) Training & Tools for Journalists

Facebook will offer newsroom training and various e-learning courses for journalists. It will be expanding the training to nine additional languages and will launch a certificate curriculum for journalists in the months ahead.

Facebook has also introduced “Live Contributor” option where a person other than admin can go Live and publish videos on behalf of the Page. Eyewitnesses who upload videos and images during breaking news events have become powerful and important sources for journalists. Facebook will work to provide practical and ethical guidance in how to find, verify and publish content sourced from the social web.

3) Training & Tools for Everyone

Facebook will help give people information so they can make smart choices about the news they read — and have meaningful conversations about what they care about. Facebook is planning on working with third-party firms to spread awareness among common masses about which news sources to trust. The longer-term goal is to support news organizations with projects and ideas aimed at improving news literacy, including financial grants where needed.

Facebook has been working on handling fake news and it has recently introduced reporting option for the users. Also, it is working with 3rd party firms to identify and deal with hoaxes.