(WCJ) — Social media has forever changed the way we communicate. In many ways, i.e. the ability to share news faster than ever before, this technological progress has proven quite beneficial. Of course, sites like Facebook also present their own unique problems.

Aside from the fact that it is now easier than ever to disseminate patently false information to a wide and receptive audience, Facebook has faced numerous accusations that its programmers actively prevent certain conservative voices from being heard.

The most recent changes to the site’s algorithms are blocking some content while prominently featuring other posts. This means many users, even if they already ‘like’ a particular page, are not receiving that organization’s feed as part of their overall timeline.

Along with countless other conservative groups, the Western Center for Journalism has been able to reach a huge group of concerned, informed readers through our Facebook presence. With more than 426,000 fans, it should be simple to share news other outlets ignore in an organic manner.

Unfortunately, the latest changes within Facebook – on top of several others along the way – have largely relegated our content to a level of unimportance while highlighting those posts programmers deem “high quality.”

Frustratingly, Facebook itself has been less than forthcoming about which types of content it will allow users to see. While an explanation on the site offered multiple vague nods to “high quality articles,” it did not elaborate on what type of content its new algorithm favors.

With more than 4 million monthly page views, it is obvious many Americans consider WesternJournalism.com a reliable and “high quality” source for news and commentary. It is also apparent, however, that Facebook embraces a thinly veiled bias against conservative pages.

According to a report by the BuzzFeed Network, which publishes a number of leftist sites including The Huffington Post and Slate, its Facebook traffic has never been higher. On the other side of the aisle, though, pages with a conservative bent are losing viewers through no fault of their own.

There are several ways for Facebook users to combat this obvious bias. Though these steps may take a few extra seconds, they will increase exposure to conservative pages like ours which have heretofore been suppressed.

The first tip includes something many readers already do. Interacting with our page by liking, sharing, and commenting on the content we post, will prompt the social media site to give our content more weight. Furthermore, Facebook extends more credibility to pages whose users actually click on links to read full articles. Simply liking a post without visiting the linked content is far less effective.

Still, even such interaction is no guarantee you will begin to see all of our updates throughout the day. In order to receive the latest breaking news and commentary, one final step will ensure our content is given priority in your newsfeed.

Simply visit our page, facebook.com/westernjournalism, and locate the “Like” button. Assuming you have already clicked this box, hovering over it will open a drop-down menu with an option to “Get Notifications.” Upon clicking on those words, a check mark will appear and Facebook will know to send you our latest information – at least until its next update, that is.