Speaking at the F8 conference yesterday Mark Zuckerberg a very simple programming API that will have a profound impact on the consumption of online news.
One of the many criticisms of online news is its lack of serendipity.
The argument is simple but important, in newspapers of old (the ones on paper) editors had control over the placement and prioritisation of articles and images. The more important they felt the story was the more prominent its place on the page. Obvious as it may see editors had a more important role than that- they had the power to educate readers by combining different stories on the same page.
Online that power does not exist. While editors could include selected content on the homepage encouraging users to read articles they might otherwise have not became (speaking as a web developer) more of a site design challenge than editorial one.
But few people regularly read the homepage. Search engines direct users to articles independently of the rest of the paper. Readers become editors searching for and choosing content that they agree with on platforms they approve of. In this system reader’s view and opinions are not so much challenged but reinforced.
Google News has offered customisation based on personal preferences and web history for some time. Google’s reach, however powerful, was limited to the placement and order of content on its news search site.
With “Open Graph” Facebook wants to customise the web according to user’s profiles. What this will mean for news media who sign up for the site is the ability to customise content according to readers Facebook profiles.
A visitor to CNN or The New York Times who’s Facebook content mentions sports will be served with sports content rather than editorially chosen content. Editors further loose their ability to challenge the reader. To quote Lord Reith;
He who prides himself on giving what he thinks the public wants is often creating a fictitious demand for low standards which he will then satisfy.
The challenge for online news is to decide if it wants to educate, entertain or inform.
