Facebook’s product guy is right, the media sucks — but journalists are also right: Facebook has to share the blame — Tech News and Analysis [GigaOM]

Final paragraphs from a timely media-and-Facebook reality check

"In the end, Hudack and his critics seem to be interested in the same thing: namely, promoting better journalism. But neither one seems to know how to get there — especially when the business model for most media companies still relies on eyeball-based, click-driven metrics, and when many users (particularly the ones on Facebook) would much rather click to see a photo of a cute puppy than they would read a long and informative post on political corruption.

Can Facebook help solve that problem? I’m not convinced that it can, even if it does try to tweak its algorithm — all that does is turn it into something resembling an old-fashioned newspaper, and we know how things have worked out for them. In many ways, both the media and Facebook (which is a media company itself in many ways) are chasing human nature, because that’s what pays the bills. And until that changes, not much else will."

Facebook’s product guy is right, the media sucks — but journalists are also right: Facebook has to share the blame — Tech News and Analysis