Listen to NPR clips right in your Facebook news feed
In December and January, hear short clips of select NPR stories without leaving Facebook.
NPR will offer bits of its audio stories directly in your Facebook news feed throughout December and January, NPR Tech Reporter Aarti Shahani announced via Twitter today. (If that lede doesn't encapsulate the idea of "old" media meeting new, we're not sure what does.) The social-media experiment offers clips of audio and a link to "Listen on NPR," which takes users to the full story, outside of Facebook. The experiment will be available via the Facebook iOS app and the site's desktop version.
The embedded-audio feature doesn't apply to every NPR story on Facebook, but you can see it in action on this post about Star Wars' legislative structure. This is all in preview mode throughout December, but beginning in January, NPR will post "several" audio clips to Facebook every day for 30 days. After that, the outlet will analyze data from these posts and advise its member stations on how to use strategies like it.
"Audio journalism is at the heart of what NPR is," NPR Senior Director of Digital Products Joel Sucherman tells Engadget. "And Facebook plays an important part in our outreach to audiences. So it really was a great opportunity to experiment with the notion that audio can actually be a viral medium, while ensuring we continue to connect listeners back to NPR and NPR member stations."
NPR posts all about its forays into the wild world of online networking on its Social Media Desk Tumblr. This move is tied to the latest expansion of Facebook Music Stories.
