The Media and Facebook: The Changing World of Communications

In the 1980s, when I started my career in communications in the non-profit sector, I faced the challenge of how to get the attention of the broader public.

I knew it was highly unlikely they were going to start reading our newsletters and magazines. How to reach them?

The answer was simple: Use the media they were already plugged into—newspapers, radio and TV.

By working with the media, I could get into their homes and share messages about the work my organization was doing, and ways they could be involved.

It worked. Since I was offering reporters what they needed—good stories—I was able to get what I wanted—access to their readers, listeners and viewers.

For a long time, it was a good, symbiotic relationship. We both profited from the arrangement.

It still is, for the most part. The media is still a good way to extend the reach of non-profit groups. But there are challenges on the near horizon.

Today, the web makes it much easier for non-profits to reach the public. 

Unlike 30 years ago, when signing up for a print newsletter was the only way to get our information, today our stories are available to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

And for the media, that’s the problem.

For a long time, the only way to learn about what was happening in the world was through the media. Those days are gone.

In 2015, people have a plethora of options for getting news. And one of the main ways they do that is through social media.

A 2013 study by the Pew Research Center for Journalism and Media found that almost half of American Facebook users got their news from Facebook.

They aren’t looking for news on Facebook; they find it while searching for something else. And the group that gets most of their news this way are 18-29 year-olds.

Whatever the reason, the media is seeing it’s hegemony on the news slipping away. And if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

At least, that’s what the New York Times, NBC,National Geographic, the BBC and five other media outlets have concluded. 

These media outlets have reached an agreement with Facebook to share news content on that platform, rather than making people click on a link to visit their own websites.

Called Instant Articles, it promises to give the media a way to offer fast interactive articles on Facebook.

For the media, this is a new paradigm. It used to be that it was the platform others needed to help them reach the largest audiences. Now it’s the media that needs Facebook to do the same thing.  

They don’t really have a choice; that’s where the audience is. 

But it does make them uneasy. One fear is that it could become more of a destination than their own sites for the work they produce, drawing away readers and advertising.

Then there’s what seems like the capricious nature of Facebook, changing its algorithms for what seems to be no apparent reason. 

It’s hard to create a communications strategy when the platform you use doesn’t belong to you, and it keeps changing the rules about what people will see in their feeds.

Those of us who work in communications in non-profits will need to pay attention to this trend. What will it mean for our media relations work? 

In the future, perhaps the goal will not just to be on the front page or to lead the news, but also to get on to Facebook.

Things have changed a lot in the over 30 years I have been involved in media relations. 

And the only guarantee is that they will keep changing.