As the industries make a gradual shift toward blockchain-based protocols, journalism happens to be one of them. The blockchain is not a revolution, it is in some ways but it’s another internet. It is another way to access the internet and Daniel Sieberg, CEO of iO and principal iO Ventures, who co-founded the community own-journalism network, Civil, agrees with us saying:

“Internet is a technological construct we all take largely for granted,” said Sieberg. “The way the Internet is distributed connects all of us like two tins and a string.”

The blockchain is simply a “new and improved” way of thinking. The existing systems are old and centralized. They have central nodes which came to be known as Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, etc. However, the problem with these nodes is that we have to rely on them for any action to be carried out. We hand over our information to them and then they process it further.

Now imagine a place where you aren’t at disposal of any central node and whatever you do is the final action. You send a message and it instantaneously goes to the receiver.

One such startup called Proof is trying t work their way through. They are a timestamp or authentication system to verify where the content came from, who and where it was created and what is its history. So gone are the days of plagiarism.

This way you wouldn’t have to go to a journalist to verify information. You can do it on your own. No one would have to make raise hell on social media when people go around copying content.

Pressland, on the other hand, helps increase transparency in journalism. They want to do this so they could increase audiences’ trust in media and in this day and age, this seems very crucial because people view media with a skeptical eye.

Blockchain needs to become something that evolves to serve a concrete purpose and all the industries become its tools.

Another reason why blockchain is crucial for journalism is that all things corrected can be checked and verified. No lengthy procedures to know the authentication or the source of the news provided. However, Sieberg believes that blockchain will not make publishing perfect but greatly improve it.

But blockchain can help us address some of the biggest problems media organizations are battling with today, like misinformation, lack of accountability and difficulty to establish authorship.

So, are you still wondering what blockchain could do for journalism?

Source : Block Publisher