The Listening Post

Decoding your Facebook newsfeed

Social media platform or news gatekeeper? Plus, one journalist’s challenges reporting on the drone war in Pakistan.

On The Listening Post this week: Facebook – social media platform or news gatekeeper? Plus, how one journalist is handling the challenges of reporting on the drone war in northwest Pakistan. 

Decoding your Facebook newsfeed

The world’s largest social media network is also one of the biggest news platforms – so allegations of a bias towards liberal news issues has triggered a lot of scrutiny, both from outside and from within. This week we unpick how Facebook delivers the news to you and why it matters.

Many journalists and writers have been tracking the Facebook story and its implications.

For this report, we have spoken to: Zeynep Tufekci, assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina; Callum Borchers, media and politics reporter at The Washington Post; Will Oremus, technology reporter at Slate.com; and Kelly McBride, media ethicist, The Poynter Institute.

On our radar

  • In Kazakhstan, 44 journalists were amongst hundreds arrested by security forces during nation-wide anti-government protests.
  • The legal case pitting a one-time time wrestler Hulk Hogan against Gawker Media. Was it funded by a Silicon Valley billionaire with a grudge? 
  • French satirical TV show Le Petit Journal exposes how a Russian state TV report about labour protests in Paris was manipulated, how viewers were misled and how the EU angle was fabricated.

Mission impossible: Reporting Pakistan’s northwest

Remote, difficult to navigate, the target or American drone strikes since 2004 and the site of the Pakistani army’s Operation Zarb-e-azb – Waziristan in northwest Pakistan is a perilous assignment for any journalist. We follow one man – Noor Behram – who is trying to report the northwest.

Talking us through this story are: Shahzad Akbar, director at the Foundation for Fundamental Rights; Madiha Tahir, director at “Wounds of Waziristan”; Noor Behram, Waziristan-based journalist; and Wajahat Khan, anchor at Dunya News.