The recent news is that Facebook’s parent, Meta, had record earnings that have driven the stock up over 20% in trading. In the world of social media, Facebook is ubiquitous. Coming from humble beginnings as a Harvard student’s pet project, it’s now expanded to 2.89 billion users worldwide, making it the largest social network by 600 million users.
While Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg began the site as a way for college students to connect with each other, it quickly ballooned to a place where people not only get information about what their friends are doing, but also what’s going on in the world. A recent Pew Research study found that 36% of American adults regularly use Facebook to get their news. In comparison, about 23% reported they use YouTube for news; 15% use Twitter.
In "American Schism," winner of the 2022 International Book Award for Best General Nonfiction, I discuss how the media incentives in both digital and cable “news” are misaligned with the public good of accurate information. While this is a complex problem, there are myriad ways that better incentive systems can be created.
