A tracking company issued a report this week that says Fox News currently reigns as the top English-language publisher with the most meaningful interactions on its Facebook posts.
Newer Facebook algorythms have pushed up articles on divisive topics such as politics, abortion, religion and gun control, while reducing fluffier, lifestyle content across the whole social media platform, NewsWhip and Nieman Lab report.
For Fox News' page on Facebook, its posts are in line with those topics and drive the most "angry" reaction clicks of any publisher — more than double all others, the report says. But that doesn't mean people don't like the headline or content, though it could. Some use the reaction symbol to signify they don't like the subject or what's happening within the story.
Engagement on Facebook overall was much higher in the first two months of 2019 than it was in 2018, NewsWhip reports. That includes likes, comments, shares and reactions on Facebook pages.
NewsWhip's report says the focus on friends and family in a person's newsfeed versus so much from pages or news organizations has probably led to an increase of people sharing news articles they enjoy, because they want to engage with their support networks about the issue.
Fox News' individual comments aren't as high as others, though. NewsWhip reports U.S. viral publisher LADBible.com tops out in that realm. And other American news publishers such as MSN and The NY Post are high there as well.
As far as post shares, Reuters leads the way. A web publisher owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, which also owns this TV station, made the list of web publishers with the highest proportion of shares on Facebook. That's Simplemost.com and it has a focus on lifestyle content.
Overall, the NewsWhip report says politics content on social media drives the "angry" reaction the most. Fox News had the most of those, but left-leaning pages are not exempt: The Washington Post, Axios and Daily Kos see a large amount.
Get the full NewsWhip report on Facebook publishing.
