FACEBOOK has launched “Facebook News”, the latest attempt by the social media giant to support journalism on its site.

The section will appear alongside the familiar news feed in a special “news tab”, dedicated solely to journalism.

After being tested internally with Facebook staff, the tab is expected to be made available to a subset of people in the United States before becoming more widely available over the next year.

Mark Zuckerberg, Chief executive of the social media platform first announced the plan in April, saying he wanted the tech giant to support struggling news outlets.

“When we started talking to news organizations about building Facebook News earlier this year, they emphasized that original reporting is more expensive to produce and better recognized by seasoned journalists than by algorithms.

“Facebook News was built to bring people closer to the stories that affect their lives. We’ll continue to learn, listen and improve News as it rolls out more broadly. We hope this work aids in our effort to sustain great journalism and strengthen democracy,” read a statement on the Facebook website.

Based on a survey carried out by the platform, topics on health, business, sports and entertainment will be making up major areas of focus.

After Facebook launched its News Feed in 2006, it became very successful with readers, leaving publishers pressed for revenue as most advertisers chose to advertise with the social.