Facebook has released several updates in the last month that will affect how journalists use the platform for reporting and storytelling. Many of these new features will make it easier for journalists to distribute their content and keep up with sources of information.

Some of the relevant changes for journalists include Subscribe, which enables readers to subscribe to journalists’ public updates, and a redesigned News Feed — complete with a newly introduced Ticker for real-time updates that makes it easier to keep up with the news that’s most important to you. The new lists also make it easier for you to target updates to a specific group of people, and to see a customized stream of news from them.

The updates also include Timeline, which showcases not only the most recent stories from a single user, but also contextualizes who that user is through a historic timeline. Timeline has the potential to create a “face book” that truly serves as a digital representation of a the self: an authentic identity that has been molded over time through life experiences, personal interests, and the people we share our lives with — the people for whom we aren’t afraid to reveal our authentic identity.

With all that in mind, we wanted to provide a breakdown of what these new updates mean for journalists and how journalists can use some of the new features in their reporting.

Read the full article at

http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/09/vadim-lavrusik-what-facebooks-latest-updates-mean-for-journalists/