Facebook Media Connection
Facebook has become the social media choice for much of the broadcast news community. Their pages provide an excellent example how this social networking site can be employed to cater to enthusiastic users of a product or service. But it also demonstrates the hazards should the audience turn hostile.
With over 175 million participants around the globe Facebook popular pages garner a wide following and can generate an astounding response to any variety of topics. CNN takes advantage of this audience to place news topics on their Facebook Wall, the space for user profiles that provides for the posting of messages, at http://www.facebook.com/cnn#/cnn. Topics might range from breaking news to specific topics like the stimulus package and garner thousands of votes on whether viewers liked the post and hundreds of comments.
MSN and MSNBC attempt a more frivolous approach catering to food, entertainment and personal interests. Fox News, on the other hand get numbers similar to CNN but with a consistently differing point of view. Their page at http://www.facebook.com/foxnews got 2,600 votes with over 600 comments March 23rd on a story about protest gatherings regarding the budget and government spending; impressive numbers for a single story on a single day. For those serious about gauging public opinion these figures can be more telling than the broadcasts themselves as one never knows public reaction to the opinions of a particular network just by tuning in.
Public reaction can be expressed in a more enthusiastic manner than simply posting a negative comment. One group expressing an angry backlash to bias in mainstream media is 1,000,000 Against the Bias of the Mainstream Media (MSM) that contains subheadings of “CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, they all have an agenda and it’s time for us to say so” and “This swoonfest over Obama is ridiculous! And let’s not even get started on the idiocity of Nancy Pelosi!” One never knows what one will get pushing a product, service or agenda on Facebook but membership is free. What do you have to loose?
