Crypto Current Affairs—New Startup 'Civil' Hopes to Fix Journalism With Blockchain Technology!
New American startup hopes to redefine journalism and reporting of news with an Ethereum-based decentralized platform. Tom McGeveran former Politico reporter left the organisation in January this year to co-found a New York-based, 'Civil' which hopes to create a self-sustaining journalistic system that is free from the media bureaucracy as we know it—fake news, huge advertising spends and external influence.
McGeveran hopes to disrupt the industry which he left behind only recently, and blend modern Ethereum blockchain based smart contracts with newsroom journalism, to effectively cut out the media bureaucracy plaguing the industry.
Blockchain enabled newsroom startups could one day potentially redefine the media industry!
In a statement released today, McGeveran has said and I quote:
"We see in crypto economics the possibility of decentralizing this package, stripping it down to the relationship between readers and journalists/producers, reducing the cost base for these basic services and freeing it from incentives that match the interests of third parties but not citizens or readers or journalists."
Journalism Of The Future
McGeveran has released a whitepaper which organises his idea of blockchain based journalism into three core aspects to create an atmosphere of self-sustaining journalism.
Newsrooms
This will allow crowdfunding to support coverage for specific topics and as the crowd funding increases, higher number of journos are likely to cover the topic. This allows the bureau to scale up proportionally to serve topics of national and international significance.
Stations
This makes it possible for journalists to create a dedicated audience and receive tips similar to Patreon or Kickstarter example. It gives any journo using the platform a way to monetise from their loyal community on the platform.
Fact-checking-as-a-service
Simple errors in journalism can be omitted by allowing citizens and journalists to collaborate together on improving the quality of the news reported. This powers the system by preventing plagiarism and misinformation amongst other things with a crowd-sourced effort, so to speak.
Introducing the CVL Token
Civil will have it's own token as the organisation plans on releasing a new token (CVL) that will allow it to service various functions including but not limited to the influence on newsroom decision making, penalising fake news and inaccurate content. It is likely to allow access to it's content through a CVL token based subscription system.
The Ethereum blockchain based startup hopes to use the smart contract system effectively to build a journalistic environment of high integrity, something the traditional news-media industry is lacking today!
In an official comment Civil founder Matthew Iles said:
"There's costs involved in the centralized business model that we don't think go towards the creation of valuable journalism, and we think there an opportunity to create efficiencies in that business model that would enable journalism to exist where it currently can't."
This new start-up could potentially pave way for a crypto token driven system that could help in exponentially reducing the costs of setting up a traditional news agency.
The startup is hiring experienced industry heavyweights as advisers. Names include former managing editor of the New York Post, Lauren Ramsby, in addition to the editor-in-chief of a popular local news site DNAinfo, John Ness.
Having worked in the media industry, I think this is an exciting new project that could potentially change the way business is done. It would be great to see the media industry grow a spine and I hope Civil can re-imagine a new, "business as usual."
Do you think the world needs a better, decentralised and blockchain based journalism that reports facts as they are?
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Most media organizations must obtain government licenses in order to operate. This creates an inherent conflict of interest. Media outlets cannot always report honestly about government entities who in turn regulate those media outlets. Cutting government licensing out of the picture by way of the blockchain will create more fair reporting, more truth-telling to government power. This is a great idea whose time has come! Thank you for posting.
Hopefully, the disintermediation that inevitably occurs removes those who put the narrative ahead of what really happens and what really needs to be reported!
I have been thinking about "narratives" lately.
Unless it is a descriptive piece of an event, how many facts are in any given news article?
There will be a core of facts, some context that puts some flesh on that skeleton, and a narrative pieces it all together. That is not necessarily a bad thing. It may even be necessary. But what happens when that narrative is considered fact?
That seems to happen in modern news. Any other narrative gets the dreaded "fake news" label.
I guess if I understand correctly, you are saying this disintermediation can help because a journalist is now free to create the narrative he or she sees fit because the funding comes from the users.
Now, that I explain it to myself. It makes more sense.
I think we agree. Journalists will be more free to follow the story wherever it leads. More freedom means that journalists can more easily challenge the stories and facts being presented by other journalists. More competition. All a good thing.
Okay. Understood.
I think my comment was actually trying to flesh out for myself the possibilities of marrying journalism with such a tech structure.
I have been paying more attention to an array of news sources over the last months. This word "narrative"... It is coming up so much that it is starting to lose meaning for me. It is like I can just say, "Oh! THAT narrative..." and easily dismiss vast amounts of material.
I think one thing seems sure. There seems to be all kinds of pressures to rethink many things. Right now, I suspect that a sort of tension between centralized governance and "regional" needs rather in the domain of technology or actual geography like within a nation.
Anyway... I am going on. Thanks!
Sad but true!
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@firepower, another superb post as usual. I think the crypto based journalism could be one of the most significant game changer in media domain. That is one domain fraught with lies, manipulation and what not, but at the same time is very powerful to topple regimes.
Hope CVL will open a new era of unprejudiced journalism and change the course of our history for better. I am still very much crypto challenged, but have gained enough wisdom to realize that this could be one of the best thing that ever happened to media industry. 😊👍
Well journalism is big part of every economy. And if there is something available to sought it out and help to grow it even further, then it would really be great to accept that.
As far as Civic is concerned, It's a great token especially because it is based on ethereum based contracts and it'll have huge potential to grow rapidly in the near future. Becasue of it's potential benefits, it has been sold out in the pre-sale and not even reached to it's public ICO sale.
It's kind of a bright decision to introduce blockchain technology in Journalism by the way of Civic Token. This will give a great boost to journalism and will solve the existing problems people are facing in Journalism industry. By creating a self-sustaining journalism, the extra advertising cost can be cut and the resulting output would be profitable.
Anyways thanks for sharing this article though, You're doing a hell of a job, providing very informative articles to your audience. I am learning from you a lot @firepower
Right now there hundred of crypto and every day we see more and more, this is why if someone whould like invest he must take his time, and i think that steem a good oppertunity for now
Yeah, Steem is a very good option as of now. Things will get better in the days to come!
U are welcome, thanks
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If we all were fed the truth via the media, people would freak out. Can you imagine all the scandals and truths that would come out?
People freak out when supermarkets are closed for one day. Imagine if they knew Obama was into male hookers and most US politicians are paedophiles....
Hahha!! well said..
All I can say is that blockchain is changing the future right now. Only time will tell if it was a good idea or not. Things to think about, good post my man!
ofcourse it is a good idea...think about it, you take the dollars, euro, yen...and transform it in something that is out that system and into a new system that has no manipulation but is all about transparency :)) at least that what i think ;)
Of course! You are right!
thank you sir! :)
Yeah!! true that! Thanks!
I love Ethereum and everything it has to offer!So i put together a quick video feat. @crypt0. Hope you guys enjoy this video!
https://steemit.com/crypto-news/@vizualsamuri/why-this-crypto-ep-2-omar-bham-aka-crypt0-ethereum-201777t13421939z
Cool!
hey thanks :)
After CNN has gone, to appropriate a popular phrase, "full retard", anything that can help restore a semblance of journalistic ethics is welcome. I just wrote a bit of an expose on #CNNBlackmail and it's hard to believe it's even happening.
However, after reviewing what you posted, I fear this idea may have some issues.
"crowd funding increases, higher number of journos are likely to cover the topic."
Isn't a big part of the problem that news isn't profitable in the West unless it is highly partisan, ideologically-motivated smear/hack-jobs? I fear it will still be difficult to attract enough funding to produce high quality, because there is so much low-quality-but-free material available on the internet, and generally the mass consumer goes for McDonald's first and foremost.
"This makes it possible for journalists to create a dedicated audience and receive tips similar to Patreon or Kickstarter example."
That kinda just sounds like Steemit, no? Plus, as you note, there are two competing platforms that already make this possible, so it's not exactly a new feature.
I hope it works out, we need some alternative to the mainstream media brainwashing our parents every day.
...It's funny, once upon a time it was the kids we were worried about being brainwashed, but now they only believe Youtube and Pewdiepie.
I hope it works. Journalism really needs a new way to support itself since the advertising market (google ads) and classified ads (craigslist) has changed so much and so quickly.
True! Hoping the same!
Yes, there are good outlets and reporters out there, but we definitely need better journalism overall.
This is an interesting idea and hopefully something like this will be successful in one way or another!
I really hope the same!
🤙