In its latest attempt to brand itself as a media entity, Snapchat is now hiring journalists to cover the 2016 presidential race. To Snap the race, more accurately.
The wildly popular photo-sharing platform has been working to fashion itself a news service since earlier this year, when it launched “Discoverâ€, a feature that doesn’t actually Snapchat, but rather, grafts content from the likes of CNN, ESPN, National Geographic and Vice. We had hints that Snapchat would be delving deeper into the world of digital media last month, when the company hired former CNN reporter Peter Hamby to head up a brand-new “news division.†What, exactly, Snapchat was planning on doing with said news team was not entirely clear, but the recent job listing highlights one possibility: Snapperific montages from the campaign trail.
Which is to say, unlike Discover (which is really just a kinda clunky news app tacked onto a different platform entirely), Snapchat’s news division may actually do some Snapping. The job offering, while marketed at journalists, is more of a bid for social media curators: You’ll “Snap the excitement of the campaign trailâ€, tell Snap stories about the 2016 presidential race, and evaluate user submitted Snaps according to moderation guidelines.
This could be the start of something big, or it could amount to nothing more than a deluge ephemeral selfies with political candidates and staged trips to Chipotle. We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m a bit skeptical myself, but then, I only joined Snapchat last week, so call me old fashioned. [Fortune]
Top image via AP
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