Can Blockchain Fix Fake News?
In the era of “fake news”, one startup is seeking to use the Ethereum blockchain to fix journalism. The project is called Civil and it is working to encode elements of the newsroom into smart contracts.
“By writing the functions of various departments, including circulation, subscriptions, ad sales and marketing, into the self-executing code, Civil aims to cut out a middleman of a different sort: media bureaucracy.”
“If successful, the effort (which is planning an ICO this year), would break down every aspect of a newsroom into its most basic components and let individuals fulfill those functions with only limited managerial oversight.”
Tom McGeveran formally with Politico, but now working on Civil told Coindesk:
"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."
The general vision for the project is to remove the need for a large bureaucratic office, drastically cutting costs and removing the middlemen between journalists and readers. In order to fuel the network of services, Civic plans on releasing its own token allowing users to access content, vote on newsroom decisions and error check.
To have a more complete understanding of the project, here is an excerpt from the Civic whitepaper…
Abstract
“Journalism needs a radically new operating paradigm. Media innovation and consumer behavior trends over the past 20 years have eroded the business model of journalism, leading to shrinking coverage throughout the ecosystem, increasing reliance on an unsympathetic advertising industry, and record-low public trust in mainstream media. However, this same wave of innovation also yielded progress in social networking, global marketplaces, and massively collaborative self-governing systems, including the recent invention and development of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and cryptoeconomic business models.”
“We propose a solution called Civil, an Ethereum-based decentralized platform that can be used to create “newsrooms” and “stations” — blockchain-based marketplaces where citizens and journalists form communities around a shared purpose and set of standards, financially support factual reporting and investigative work, and substantially limit misinformation through effective collaborative-editing methods. The net result is a self-sustaining global marketplace for journalism that is free from ads, fake news, and outside influence.”
The whitepaper also acknowledges the breakdown of trust between the corporate media and the people.
"our deeply divided society no longer shares the same picture of reality: 62% of the public believe the media is biased and 55% believe news organizations are “often inaccurate”."
"until a self-sustaining form of funding quality journalism is widely adopted, everyday people will increasingly distrust the government, the media and each other."
I find the project fascinating and it is another example of the diverse uses for blockchain technology, Civil will no doubt advance the cause of open and honest journalism, whether it can revitalize corporate media is another story.
Corporate media has been on a steady decline for years and the recent ratings bump from this year’s election is waning. Viewership and readership continue to plummet as people seek alternative sources for information. The internet and platforms like youtube, U stream and even steemit are already allowing individuals to be their own newsroom. Civil may allow established media to become more competitive with the alternative media but I do not think it will be enough to stop the changing paradigm. What is encouraging is the prospect of raising the quality and integrity of information by using the blockchain. The “fake news” bombardment has destroyed the credibility of many networks and publications, eroding many of the last vestiges of trust, between the media and the people. Can that trust be rebuilt on the blockchain? If this can allow for a more honest news system, the media may be able to regain some of the people’s favor.
Source Coindesk
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Boolean: The News Accuracy Platform On The Ethereum Blockchain is aiming to combat Fake News through real-time metrics and user feedback provided to users AS they consume news. The use of the blockchain allows for complete transparency, permanency, and the ability to be regularly audited. That will allow them to remain a neutral third-party.
Thanks, I was looking for this startup aftera friend mentioned an ethereum startup for verified news. I signed up to follow their updates at http://joincivil.com/
Thanks for dropping that link here for people.
I just joined the email list as well.
When people are desperate they want to hear simple answers and they want to follow strong leaders
Once the avalanche is rolling nobody can stop it
It is to late to stop the alternative news
What is cheaper and more direct than twitter
And still the news business was never better than with trump
Hopefully the future stays peacefull
The level of the political discussion goes down and the desperation of the people rises that can lead to violence
It will be interesting to see if this concept could be used to further the cause of alternative media as well. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Interesting. I've brought up using the blockchain to incentivize accurate news reporting before, I wonder how well it would work.
Even after reading the whitepaper it is still a little difficult to imagine how it will work when fully implemented, I also wonder how well it will work it the real world.
Great post! I'd like to see how it goes with that idea!
Thanks! I will try and keep an eye on the project and post any major updates!
Awesome! I'll keep an eye for it too!
That's really great to know , i really hope it becomes successful, Transparency is much needed in today's era of misinformation n paid news.
Surely Blockchain will revolutionalize many industries
Blockchain will challenge every major institution! Just wait until it starts challenging governments, that is wehn things get interesting ;)
I like the idea of news on the blockchain - the transparency is needed. Are you content with folks buying the coins having influence on what is reported?
This is what I meant in my other comment about not being sure how it will work once implemented.
I think the point you raise is valid and needs to be addressed. I am very curious how the entire ecosystem would function when released to the world.
Thought you might be alluding to that so I wanted to clarify.
It will be a fun project to watch.
I was. I probably should have been a bit more clear on that.
Yes, it will be very interesting, there are so many cool projects right now, it is hard to keep up!
It is hard to keep up!
Speaking of which, are you familiar with the Veritaseum project?
I know a little bit about it but am not personally invested. Is there something specific you want to know about Veri?
Not at the moment. I just heard about Veri, and it sounded interesting. Since you are one of my go to people in the know about crypto, I thought I would ask you.
From what I know about it, the goal is to remove the middlemen from capital markets, potential to be very disruptive to the current financial ecosystem. I will do a bit more digging into it for you.
Sorry for the delayed response, have been having computer issues recently.
Have Civic on my watchlist. Thanks to Trump the media corruption will be fully exposed and Civic may be the solution we need. Amazing what blockchain decentralized technology can do for the world.
There is certainly more pressure on the media than we have seen in decades. Whether or not Civic can provide a solution remains to be seen....but it is good to see so many projects looking to inject truth into all aspects of our society!
Thanks for the comment :)