Untraditional Media Companies ⇥ buzzfeed.com

Samuel Gibbs, of the Guardian:

Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, appears to have finally conceded that the social network is a media company, just not a “traditional media company”.

In a video chat with Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, Zuckerberg said: “Facebook is a new kind of platform. It’s not a traditional technology company. It’s not a traditional media company. You know, we build technology and we feel responsible for how it’s used.”

Alex Kantrowitz, Buzzfeed:

At a time when social media companies shirk the “media company” label, Twitter, which has also balked at such descriptions in the past, seems to be embracing the role. Twitter is hiring editors and testing breaking news push notifications. It’s regularly announcing deals for new, premium live video content traditionally associated with “media” companies (last week, it was a Golden Globe pre-show). It’s making daily calls on what’s news and what’s not in its Moments tab and on Periscope. And after years of being classified as a “social networking” application in Apple’s App Store, it’s found a new home in the store’s “news” category.

Now that two of the most notable purveyors of fake news are identifying themselves as being in, you know, the news business, will they start taking on the responsibilities of other news organizations? I’m not solely referring to a commitment to accuracy, though that is obviously necessary, but also defending the public’s access to high-quality journalism.