Facebook has teamed up with several outlets to release its own exclusive news shows.
The company announced on Wednesday it was funding several news organizations to create original exclusive series for its platform. The shows will appear on Watch, its section dedicatesd to original video series.
Facebook's new initiative comes as the company has been increasingly criticized for its role in propagating false information masquerading as news. The company said it would remove its Trending section, where popular news topics and links are featured, in June as part of a pivot to mobile and video-based news information.
"Earlier this year we made a commitment to show news that is trustworthy, informative, and local on Facebook," Campbell Brown, head of global news partnerships, wrote in a blog post. "As a part of that commitment, we are creating a dedicated section within Watch for news shows produced exclusively for Facebook by news publishers. With this effort, we are testing a destination for high quality and timely news content on the platform."
The first group of series, which will debut later this summer, include programming from ABC News, Advance Local, ATTN, CNN, Fox News, Mic and Univision. ABC News "On Location" will be a daily global news show on the largest news items of the day, while CNN's "Anderson Cooper Full Circle" will recap the top global headlines Monday through Friday in a vertical video format. Fox News' "Fox News Update" — which will be led by Carley Shimkus on weekday mornings, Shepard Smith on weekday afternoons, and Abby Huntsman on weekends — focuses on breaking news and important stories.
See a trailer for the shows below.