Each year, Channel 4, like all other news broadcasters in the UK, has to prove that its news output is meeting a certain degree of public interest. For the UK’s ad-funded public service broadcaster, this led to uncovering answers to deeper, knottier questions around the move online and into social – namely, how can you tell if a Facebook post is doing anything for your brand? Through a clever and original study, Channel 4 sought to understand the consumption and effects of the news not just the posts.
Channel 4 News’ Facebook numbers attest to a great quantitative success, with...