Facebook launches tool to help journalists find, organise and publish content

A new tool launched by Facebook helps journalists find, organise and publish content found on its extensive network.

With the social networking tool called Signal, journalists would be able to find, source, and embed content from Facebook and Instagram.

The tool would be free for journalists.

"We've heard from journalists that they want an easy way to make Facebook a more vital part of their news-gathering with the ability to surface relevant trends, photos, videos, and posts on Facebook and Instagram for use in their storytelling and reporting," Andy Mitchell, director of media partnerships, said in Facebook blog post.

He added that media organisations had been asking for a strategy to increase the use of the social community for reporting functions.

In a similar move only a week earlier, Facebook made its 'Mentions' app available to journalists with verified profiles.

That app, which allows users to track mentions of themselves and stream live video, had earlier been available for public figures like athletes and actors.

'Mentions' is for outward-facing content and self-promotion, but 'Signal' is desktop-only for now and is designed to ease the backend of the news-gathering process.

"Today we're excited to introduce Signal, for Facebook and Instagram, a free discovery and curation tool for journalists who want to source, gather, and embed newsworthy content from Facebook and Instagram, across news, culture, entertainment, sports, and more -- all in one place," Mitchell wrote.

Journalists could also access a list of public figures ranked by who was being mentioned the most on Facebook, including "real-time conversations" involving politicians, authors, actors, musicians, athletes and others.

Mitchell said the tool could also be used on Instagram for visual content.

"Every Facebook post, every Instagram image or video, and every metric found in Signal can be easily saved into custom collections for later use," he wrote.

"This is a first step in helping journalists use Facebook and Instagram more effectively and we'll gather feedback and iterate to make Signal as useful as possible for industry professionals."