Every place has its local Facebook page that serves as an open forum in which people post about the latest emergencies, crime, missing pets, and other real-time content.
There are large geography pages and neighbourhood pages.
For years, I’ve noted that the information posted in these groups is almost always accurate. Same as happens with legacy media reporting, there are times that initial reports turn out to incorrect. Even then, they are good faith errors.
The groups are self-correcting. As more information becomes known, the incorrect initial reports are superceded.
This past week, I read a 2022 report issued by the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin that found only 0.3 percent of posts in local Facebook groups reviewed by the researchers were “misinformation” or “false” content.
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v. 1.0.0
Published: September 21, 2025
Last updated: September 21, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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v. 1.0.0 original version