On April 5, Justin Osofsky, Director of Media Partnerships at Facebook, announced through a blog post:

_“_Today we’re launching a new Journalists on Facebook page to serve as an ongoing resource for the growing number of reporters using Facebook to find sources, interact with readers, and advance stories.”

Essentially, the people at Facebook are extending an olive branch to journalists, with whom they have often had a rocky relationship.

To say that Facebook and the press have had a complicated relationship since the social network’s launch over seven years ago is probably an understatement.

Journalists have become increasingly reliant on using the social medium to find and report news items, as well as drive a fundamental amount of traffic from the website to their publication’s own. Yet on the other hand, they are quick to critique and outline major flaws in Facebook’s security, privacy and general policies.

However, Facebook is also reliant on the press when it comes to publishing stories, as the company strives to maintain a positive image amongst users and critics.

So how does Facebook deal with this multifaceted association? It’s simple; by reaching out directly to journalists.

The Journalists on Facebook page provides videos, articles and a best practices tab to further inform the press of the social medium’s journalistic capabilities. Facebook also plans to host a number of workshops for journalists in order to support this new agenda, and users can sign up through the page to receive the dates and times of these international conferences, the first of which commences on April 27 in California, USA.

To date, the page has gained 36,891 likes, which stands as a testament to the page’s significance. Whether it is a long-term remedy to an often turbulent dichotomy still remains to be seen, but it is, nonetheless, a very smart move by Facebook, and shows that the social network is continuously tuned in to its direct and indirect associates.