Week 12-
Facebook hires TV journalist Campbell Brown as media liaison after fake news fallout
Facebook has hired former CNN anchor Campbell Brown to help build better relations with news organizations in the wake of the fake news scandal.
The social media giant already has a team of staff to liaise with media within the markets it operates but Brown – an Emmy-winning TV veteran who also worked at NBC – at will lead this team, reporting into Nick Grudin, vice-president of media partnerships.
“I will be tapping my newsroom experience to help news organizations and journalist work more closely and more effectively with Facebook,” she said, announcing the news on her Facebook page.
“Right now we are watching massive transformation take place in the news business – both in the way people consume news and in the way reporters disseminate news. Facebook is a major part of this transformation.”
The social network has been under pressure to take more responsibility for the content that’s distributed on the platform since it has become one of the main ways many people get their news.
Facebook came under fire for failing to tackle the spread of misinformation on its network, particularly the “fake news” created by Macedonian teenagers and other entrepreneurs to appeal to people’s political biases in the run-up to the US presidential election.
Change never stops, but we will always need journalism
the trouble as 2017 begins is simplicity, as in simple cause and effect. Fifteen years ago, Britain devoured around 15m newspapers each morning. Now it’s 6m and falling. Meanwhile digital consumption/addiction accelerates away and social media dominate reading time and attention.
One habit dies; another takes over. That’s an obvious tale of cause and effect, a conclusion that broadcasters who don’t much appreciate the printed press find an easy recitation. One habit falls, another takes over. An equation so basic you don’t really have to think about it – nor try to set it in any historical context. But look back awhile before you look forward. For looking forward means looking back.
History has a way of answering questions – and my history in print began almost six decades ago at the Witney Press, 12 miles from Oxford. There, twice a week, academic ambitions pushed conveniently well to one side, some of us brought out the university paper Cherwell. And there, too, we registered the hard, creaky truths about newspaper production: an old, thumping flatbed press down below, a composing room that shook as the first copies emerged, and three men who knew the ropes. Bill sat at the Linotype keyboard and set every word; George was head printer and head of everything; and then there was Trembly Charlie, who had a disconcerting habit of scattering lead slugs all over the floor as deadlines neared.
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