Significant News Story #2

Users not happy with new Facebook changes

As some know, Facebook has recently changed their users' pages and, like all changes, some like it and some don't. This article focuses on those who don't like the changes. Some of the changes that were made were:

1. The News Feed was changed in that when you look at it, it doesn't "default" to the Top News stories. Instead, they added in a "Top Stories" bar on the top which shows you the most popular or "top" stories of all of your friends.

2. They also added what they call "The Ticker" to the right side of the Facebook page. It shows all of your comments, posts, and 'likes' in it as soon as the action is made. Some find this annoying and distracting, others think that it will "bridge the gap in the time lag the News Feed sometimes experiences".

I thought this was interesting because, like my other top news story, I am a Facebook user and so are many people that I know. There are so many people that Facebook is connected to in the world. In fact, there are almost a billion members now. So when Facebook makes a change, it is noticed by the world and affects everyone that is on it. So with such a large group of people logged into Facebook, there will be a lot of room for debate on the topic of whether the changes are for the better or worse.

What makes this story News Worthy is first that it has Impact because it will have an effect on many lives of those who are all connected to Facebook. Second, it has Immediacy because it just happened on September 21st. Third, it has Proximity because as a college student, a lot of people rely on Facebook to make their network connections with other students. Fourth, it has Prominence because everyone knows about Facebook. Fifth, it has Conflict because some like the changes and some don't and are even taking it to the level of where they will stop using Facebook due to the changes.

Here is the link to the story for more information:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/21/tech/social-media/facebook-changes-react/index.html