Social media has become a hub for citizen journalists reporting breaking news. And now Facebook is capitalizing on that built-in feature via the new FB Newswire.
Powered by Storyful, the aggregation service is aimed at journalists and newsrooms looking for newsworthy content to share and embed into their own articles.
FB Newswire pulls the most important, talked-about stories shared publicly on the social network by individuals or organizations around the world, and hands them out to reporters.
Journalists can find original photos, videos, and status updates "posted by people on the front lines of major events like protests, elections, and sporting events," Facebook's director of news and global media partnerships, Andy Mitchell, said in a statement.
Keep up with the top news in real time via Facebook (Facebook.com/FBNewswire) and Twitter (@FBNewswire).
"In Storyful, we're excited to have found a partner with a track record of understanding both the potential of the social Web as a key resource for media as well as the tools that newsrooms need to utilize it," Mitchell said.
The three-year-old discovery platform estimated that 684,478 pieces of Facebook content are shared every minute—making it what Storyful called "an extraordinarily engaging and fast-moving platform."
"We will be finding and verifying compelling videos, images and posts around breaking news stories and tentpole events, unearthing trends and memes and debunking false stories and myths," Storyful managing editor Aine Kerr wrote in a blog post.
Already today, the Newswire service has provided links to Khloe Kardashian's comments on the anniversary of the Armenia massacre, a "cat cafe" in New York, and the title of Peter Jackson's next Hobbit movie installment (it's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies).
Facebook already highlights some of the days' most visible news via Trending Topics, and has given a boost to media organizations through an updated News Feed. And it seems to be working: According to Mitchell, publishers have reported four times more referral traffic from Facebook than last year.
"And we're excited to deepen our relationship with media organizations and journalists in the days to come," he said.