Facebook has launched Signal, a free tool that will enable journalists to discover and curate trending topics and related content on Facebook and Instagram.
Signal will make it easier for journalists to find, appraise, collate and publish Facebook and Instagram content – material that is becoming increasingly relevant in this age of the 24-hour news cycle, and as the power of social media grows.
According to Andy Mitchell, director of media partnerships at Facebook, the tool has been much sought.
“We’ve heard from journalists that they want an easy way to make Facebook a more vital part of their newsgathering with the ability to surface relevant trends, photos, videos, and posts on Facebook and Instagram for use in their storytelling and reporting,” said Mitchell in a Facebook blog post.
Journalists using Signal will be able to see what conversations are “resonating” on Facebook, and display related content in chronological order, not ranked by popularity or any other metric.
The Signal dashboard will display trending topics and related content
On Instagram, journalists will be able to use the social media site’s advanced search and location features to track trends and view public posts surrounding news events around the world.
This content can then be saved into custom collections and embedded or integrated into online or broadcast news.
This is just the latest tool released by Facebook to keep journalists coming back to the site – last week, the social media giant expanded its Live feature to journalists and all verified accounts in a bid to provide journalists with more ways to connect with their audience.
Signal is currently only available to journalists in the US.
Main image via Shutterstock
