The local news piece was by far the most interesting to me as well. Until recently, nearly all journalists got their starts in local news, and as Facebook correctly notes, it has the advantage of focusing on stories that actually impact the intended audience's day to day life. Also, since the readers are often closer to the actual events, players, and issues described, it's arguable that the readers are less susceptible to the opinion disguised as reporting that typifies much of partisan, new media (although I'll admit that this is arguable at best, and assumes that the readers actually want their reporting to be factual).
My personal social media experience at Nextdoor (which is focused completely on the local), and I know this is anecdotal, is that that a lot of the people cut out the big, over-dramatically sweeping hyperbolic politics when the topic / scope of conversation is more localized in nature. At least, I mostly see reports on the neighborhood, events and complaints, services advertisements, etc. People have opinions, of course, but its not the binary hyperbolic type stuff that personifies too much of national politics (and sadly tends to leak over on too many Facebook posts).
(From this viewpoint, I'd see a model like Nextdoor an easier fit for a local news initiative... Facebook's scope just seems too global at first glance for them to do a very good job.)
Comments
The local news piece was by far the most interesting to me as well. Until recently, nearly all journalists got their starts in local news, and as Facebook correctly notes, it has the advantage of focusing on stories that actually impact the intended audience's day to day life. Also, since the readers are often closer to the actual events, players, and issues described, it's arguable that the readers are less susceptible to the opinion disguised as reporting that typifies much of partisan, new media (although I'll admit that this is arguable at best, and assumes that the readers actually want their reporting to be factual).
My personal social media experience at Nextdoor (which is focused completely on the local), and I know this is anecdotal, is that that a lot of the people cut out the big, over-dramatically sweeping hyperbolic politics when the topic / scope of conversation is more localized in nature. At least, I mostly see reports on the neighborhood, events and complaints, services advertisements, etc. People have opinions, of course, but its not the binary hyperbolic type stuff that personifies too much of national politics (and sadly tends to leak over on too many Facebook posts).
(From this viewpoint, I'd see a model like Nextdoor an easier fit for a local news initiative... Facebook's scope just seems too global at first glance for them to do a very good job.)