Blockchain is innovative, that much we are sure of, but the things people focus on the most are security and pseudo-anonymity. These things help make the cryptocurrency/blockchain relationship so incredibly important to our future because they provide a different way of doing business, investing, inventing and innovating, without needing the approval of some kind of government entity. The way that blockchain uses smart contracts, timestamps, transactions etc. to provide a greater sense of security and pseudo-anonymity (in some cases, only if you want to be anonymous) is revolutionary. It adds integrity and a sense of innovation, but what can it do for journalism?
Journalism is an aging profession, whether we talk about newspapers, tv broadcasts or websites. Journalism has always been susceptible to attacks by fraudsters, propagandists, libelists and slanderers, but in this day and age journalism is increasingly vulnerable because there are hundreds of thousands of "news" websites all over the web. There are satire websites like The Onion, Duffel Blog and National Report that the naive and innocent take for actual news, but this could not be further from the truth. While these satire websites admit and own the fact that they make "fake news", there are plenty of insidious websites that pass it off as legitimate news. This is dangerous, wrong and threatens the platform of integrity that people expect from news outlets. While journalism has always had errors of accuracy, for the most part people have come to trust the news that is put out by these organizations, but currently the scrutiny of Mainstream Media (MSM) is at an all-time high. Using smart contracts and unalterable blocks in the publication of news blockchain can restore some of the integrity and accountability to journalism.
There has already been an attempt to use the Ethereum blockchain to establish a more secure and reliable news network, it is called Decentralized News Network (DNN). DNN was created by two gentlemen from New Jersey, Samit Singh and Dondry Taylor. The pair said they were disgruntled after seeing the way the MSM reported and covered the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. They built DNN in order to demand greater accountability, accuracy, and integrity from the news. DNN is entirely free to all readers, built on the basis of the Ethereum blockchain, and uses digital tokens backed by Ethereum to incentivize authors and fact checkers to ensure articles/stories are accurate. Their white paper can be found here: https://goo.gl/8GoRZv.
In order to continue to see a positive trend in the relationship between journalism and cryptocurrency, we must continue to support projects like DNN and demand greater quality from the already existing MSM outlets like CNN, Fox News, MSNBC etc. Freedom of press is great but when so many people in this country become exposed to fake news by these big networks, their ignorance grows. News that is reported as true by massive news outlets through substandard research, zero accountability and sloppy methods of extraction insult the intelligence of everyone who becomes influenced by it. We need to come together as a cryptocurrency community and make sure that we exercise the collective power we wield responsibly. We can make a change that will make the world a better and more honest place, and we can start one article at a time, one block in the chain.
Refs:
Thanks for sharing
Has the MSM hit rock bottem yet?
They hit rock-bottom back in the 90s. They started to consolidate under the control of just 6 corporations, down from the 50 that used to spread the power. It's a monopoly.
Sites like Steemit really put pressure on some of the big outlets you've named. The fact that I can come here and voluntarily read (and tip) great content like what you have just written, it's speaks volumes. Force feeding people with false and negative news is coming to an end because of the Blockchain. The future is very bright:) I'm glad I came across this post today, thank you for sharing @ricrolla
I really appreciate that, the key I think is to keep the pressure constant and make sure they know about us. If they know about us, they may stop spoon-feeding people lies, and in turn, we have directly affected these people and the news they are receiving. Glad to have people like you around. Thanks for reading.
Absolutely agree ^_^ thank you again.
This Is great!
I love how you are examining ways that cryptocurrencies can create a positive impact in different areas of society. Looking forward to reading more!
Thanks Elle! I appreciate it
Your writing style is so easy to read, and I loved the content. Well done!
Thank you so much, I try my best to keep my voice even when I am writing about a topic that makes my mind go a million miles per hour! Thanks for reading
This is awesome. Very thorough and thoughtful. Keep it up man.
I appreciate that man, I will keep doing my best to put out quality content about our community and things we can do with this awesome power, but like Uncle Ben said, "with great power comes great responsibility" Thanks for reading
Great articles and in depth views. Blockchain journalism is a scarce compared to how much cryptocurrency's worth today. slowly I think it will evolves
I truly hope so, like you said crypto is moving at break neck speeds, but certain things that can come along for the ride and thrive are missing out. We have to do the best we can to talk about what we can do as a community
Hodor
MSM Vs DNN Guess who wins.
We can hope that MSM changes, but DNN is a good test run of Blockchain Journalism.
This DNN project sounds interesting thank you for bringing it to my attention.
No problem, hope you like it when you read up on it! Thanks for reading!
Great post Up voted....
Thanks so much.
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Things like this give me hope! Exactly why I love the blockchain
Blockchain is incredible, there is so much that can be done
I am so sick of the MSM and how they don't report news or issues that effect the people, they report on politicaly reality tv. Thatnks for sharing about the DNN, I will look in to it and most likely buy. I am all about change and doing what I can to help create a positive change in the world. I love crypto currency and what it can do for the humanity
The MSM doesn't really care whether we are aware of the things that are actually important, they just push their own agenda.
I agree, people (many people) are pretty set in their thinking about how the world works. For instance, when I tell people what I do for a living they look at me funny. It looks like their response is a combination of two thoughts. On the one hand, pity, as if to say, man you are behind the times. On the other hand, total bewilderment, or cognitive dissonance, I like to call it. I think the reason why people respond this way, is because they may not understand that freelance translation (not just interpreting) is a profession.
The thing is that people assume that because you don't belong to a specific institution that you are not successful, which is obviously not always true. It's more of a problem with people subscribing to typical thoughts.
Why is that a bigger problem? can I ask you a huge personal favour? Can you resteem my article, I want to try it out and see what happens...
Done, always willing to help.
Great thanks!
Hey ricorolla,
It's not so much fake news thats the problem, it's one sided news with a political agenda. Opinions force fed to the mainstream that become fact simply because that media outlet has the biggest voice.
But people dont have to digest it. They have to take responsibility for themselves. The blockchain tech such as the project you spoke about in your post and even Steemit itself allow people to do their own research but i guarantee the mainstream wont because they are lazy.
It is what it is.
It sucks that this is the way the world works, but unfortunately, it is true. The most that any of us can do is try to encourage the people around us to think for themselves, and develop their own opinions and thoughts.
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