In the United States and around the world quality journalism is going through difficult times. Against the Background of a steadily deteriorating public trust in the Mainstream press systemic issues such as the increasing political polarization of the media, the dissemination of Fake News, and asymmetric power relationships between platforms and publishers in the press in the way, to fulfill its crucial social functions. The Central role of the media in society is, at least normatively, to provide the Public with basic Knowledge about the state of the world, which allows people to make informed decisions. In a democracy, both institutional as well as social media to allow an open Arena for public discussion in which a diversity of voices and ideas is represented. The reality, however, seems dramatically from this Ideal to depart.
A long critical Tradition has an extensive list of statements, which are the structural defects in the American media system. Even in the pre-digital age, some communication scholars were dissatisfied with the increasing concentration of corporate ownership in the media industries, because this development of the democratic process threatened. Supporters of this intellectual flow were in favour of the widest possible distribution of the communication power as a protection against the abuse of power by large corporations and state actors. The advent of digital news has triggered a wave of similar criticism, because it quickly became clear that the new media Ecosystem, contrary to the expectations of the early Internet enthusiasts, eliminated the differences in the communication strength completely. Instead, it seemed to reproduce the old patterns of concentration of power and some new problematic Trends.
The majority of contemporary media critiques converge to a point: the digital news economy. The ad-supported Online business model is often not sufficient to obtain certain forms of journalism, which are dependent on the specific and narrow target groups for financial support. These forms are of social importance, such as local news or investigative reporting. Labeled as the “attention economy”, the incentive system that generated through News Feeds in social media the rewards that catch the eye and clicks. Facebook and Google derive the majority of their profits from the sale of targeted Ads, have obvious reasons to promote the user interaction with the content. Here, algorithmic news feeds, which facilitate the users with the selective use of content, you will probably enjoy. Extrapolated to the political Arena, this logic leads to the fact that people in ideological information bubbles are included, in which partisan views are reinforced and prejudices to be confirmed. These bubbles are also a fertile ground for the dissemination of politically-charged misinformation.
Budding media reformers have suggested a number of remedies against these diseases. Among the alternative models, philanthropic, Foundation-supported Nonprofits, topic-specific, donor-supported media and various forms of collaborative citizen journalism. Although these solutions are, in certain contexts, to be sustainable, you have not shown so far that they are flexible and scalable, to achieve a degree of Mainstream acceptance. In addition, these models are mainly based on the good will of those people whose motivations are purely altruistic, which makes it difficult to make a steady contribution flow.
A handful of Blockchain-based media Startups that want to revolutionize the news business, are in this important aspect of different. They hope to not only draw a crowd, longing for good journalism, but to also give you economic incentives for your efforts to preserve the Ecosystem for the content of messages. With the versatile Incentive-Building Tools in the crypto economy, combined with game theory, behavioral modeling, and the principles of decentralized Governance, aim of these projects on the creation of Community-driven marketplaces for the production, Distribution and verification of messages.
is A characteristic feature of each of these platforms is that they are all driven by the principles of the Token Economy. In contrast to traditional Fiat currencies, or even a General crypto currency that could be used for any type of transaction, crypto-Token is normally designed in such a way that they restrict the range of their use programmatically to a specific set of roles and functions within a given system. Tokens reflect the objectives and values of a particular platform and can be used to bring the economic interests of its individual users with the interests of the community as a whole in line. As a means for transactions such tokens are no longer a content-neutral tool that allows the easy Transfer of information, or value; they include, rather, the common interests and values of those who have chosen to use within a specific Ecosystem.
Within the broader Ecosystem of the emerging Blockchain-based media start-UPS, there are a Plethora of platforms, the use of crypto-economic models to define the System of money exchange between creators and consumers of information goods. The most common focus is on user-generated content, and the way normal people are in social media for their work rewarded. Some examples Steemit, Sapien, or Po.et, to name just a few. The following Overview, however, focuses on a more specific group of projects that explicitly deal with some problematic institutional aspects of the current media system. As such, the projects recognize in the list, the independent social value of news and to offer corrections, with the aim to create a better informed Public.
Civil
A decentralized marketplace for sustainable journalism, is designed to solve the Problem of the “broken news”, by the shortcomings of the advertiser’s media industry to be addressed. It is used as a platform for independent media organisationen act, so-called Newsrooms, which are bound to a professional code of ethics. Civil is working with the Ethereum Blockchain. Also if everyone has access to the contents of the Civil will have a Newsroom is organized, the model of decentralized Governance of the platform to the community of CVL-Token-holder.
The key mechanism to ensure that journalists adhere to the code of ethics, the Token-curated registry or Whitelists. This model includes three categories of actors: 1) editors, whose goal is to be on the white list, and with your application, a Token-use place; 2) consumers who are interested to have a high-quality Whitelist with trusted Newsrooms at Hand, and 3) Trustees, whose interest is to keep the price of your Tokens, you get a consumers want reliable Whitelist to maintain. The game begins with a candidate Token in support of his application, makes a Deposit, he can keep in case of a successful Whitelist. Another possibility is that the applicant of certificate holders, challenged and, ultimately, a vote is rejected, in which case the Deposit and curators share.
Civil graph.jpg. Caption: Possible scenarios after the application of a Newsroom to the registry. Scenario 2 triggers the election process and another sequence of possible consequences. Source Civil
Although it at first glance makes sense that curators refuse every single application and all of the deposits retain you will be encouraged strategically to curate the list carefully, so that the value of their holdings remains high. The expect behind the men behind this System is that the game is repeatedly played, brings optimal results for both the reader as well as for the Token-holder, while the editors continue to be permitted to connect to the platform, if your content complies with the Community Standards.
the Same mechanism, is to ask for the Whitelisting of third-party developers working on the platform, as well as for the removal of disputable content used as soon as they are published. Community Governance will, therefore, include the control of Content producers and creators of Add-On Tools or applications, as well as the quality of certain messages. It goes without saying that the crypto-economy, the platform will streamline the process of direct reward from the Newsroom out of the pockets of readers through one-time or recurring payments.
Decentralized News Network (DNN)
The stated mission of DNN is an infrastructure for political facts, which are not manipulable, infiltrierbar or biodegradable. The aim of the project creators is to be a democratic Alternative to the Mainstream media, you with Clickbait, distorting influences of companies say harass bubbles, fake news and “Filter”. Similar to how Civil it is the responsibility to ensure the consistency Of the content of the Community Standards lies with the Community members itself, but the mechanism is slightly different. While Civils model relies on “Whitelisting” trusted Newsrooms, which remain after approval of editorial content, subject to the DNN platform, each Story of a Community Review before it can be published.
In the DNN Ecosystem, there are four Community-roles: authors, reviewers, readers and publishers. Since there is no formally organized newsrooms, everyone will be able to operate as a writer and to publish messages. But before a story for each is visible included in the Blockchain, will coordinate a group of seven reviewers, whether they agreed with the Community content guidelines. Together with the submission of a story to Review, the author paid a Token fee in DNN -; reviewer your bid. As soon as the votes are submitted, the item will be either accepted or rejected, and those reviewers who have voted with the majority, to be rewarded by the charge of the writer, while those who have submitted a minority voice, have forfeited their bids. When the article goes online, readers can add value to him and tilting. In this case, both the authors as well as the majority of auditors will be rewarded. This bietspiel architecture is designed to maximize the Benefits for the community, if all parties involved act addictive.
DNN graph.jpg. Caption: description: Community-roles and types of economic activity on the DNN platform. Source: Decentralized News Network white paper
One of the main concerns of the DNN video artists, the survival ability of the platform to malicious actors that try to overwhelm the network, or to destroy. The fourth Community-role of publishers, is reserved for computers that store the Software of the network in a decentralized manner.
Media Sifter
Media Sifter strives to provide an environment for the news consumer, in the attention economy by “proof of savings” will be replaced. In contrast to Civil and DNN Media focuses Sifter not on the production of the original messages, but on the validation and investigation of the Community of the external content. The model consists of two main elements: a news aggregator and a Blockchain-based incentive system that is based on a SIFT Protocol, which allows for a collaborative validation and fact checking.
Media Sifter graph.jpg. Caption: Community-roles and phases of the facts of the audit to the Media Sifter platform. Source: Media Sifter white paper
The Aggregator collects news from across the Web and presents it to a user, sorted in various ways: according to theme, perspective, or geographic location. Once a reader has with the content, he may initiate a “proof of Bounty” in the SFT token each in the Text of recorded statement, and other Community members request to investigate this. Those who decide the evidence to the highlighted claims to be an investigator. After you have explored the subject of the statement, validate or invalidate the claim. This decision is then sent to a panel of quasi-randomly selected reviewers, who assess the quality of the evidence of the investigator and decide whether or not to approve. This decision requires unt to be a consensus he the reviewers. Once the fact check is confirmed, all parties involved have a share in the bounty, as well as CRD-points that match your personal reviews. The sophisticated cost-effectiveness of the platform allows for various forms of rewards for successful investigative work, including license fees and special subscriptions.
PUBLIQ
Despite the many Similarities with the “ecosystem” of platforms, such as Civil and DNN PUBLIQ has a number of special features. The three pillars of its architecture, the Content Sharing level, the level of the transaction and a reputation system. The latter serves as a major incentive mechanism for content producers. PUBLIQ will operate on its own Blockchain with a modified Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. Miner, node state, by securing a special “Mining Token”, seal every 30 seconds or 2000 operations a new Block.
In contrast to other platforms reserved PUBLIQ advertisers in your Ecosystem. Ads are attached to all free content. According to the white paper advertising have driving access to APIs, as well as some of the Targeting Algorithms. The AI assistant, whose main functions recommend to the readers of the article, and you will supply with the whole range of opinions, is the advertising help advertisers to aim their messages better. Readers can choose between paid subscription and free content with Ads. The difference to Facebook is that 100 percent of the advertising revenue will be distributed to authors and channels.
Publiq graph.jpg. Caption: PUBLIQ workflow. Source: PUBLIQ white paper
Otherwise, the structure of economic exchange is known. Authors post articles, together with a Token share, while readers can respond with the Like, the Share, or the Lifting of a flag. Based on the Feedback of the reader, authors will receive monetary rewards and reputation points. A panel of 40 high-ranking authors of a rating of content that have received a certain number of flags. Important decisions regarding project development will be made for a community-wide vote.
All of the tested platforms are currently in the Phase of the Alpha or beta tests, and it is not yet clear whether their incentive models actually work the way the designers have intended. A lot depends on how many people let the Ideals behind these ambitious projects inspire you to pursue them sufficiently. The fundamental Problem of any system that would be based on a community-driven value creation, is to show that the resources, the commitment and the enthusiasm of benevolent individuals ready, always there are limits. Not every of a paid professional task can Crowdsourcing be subjected to. The question now is whether decentralisation and intelligent incentive systems to transform each Token-holder to a paid professional.
While there are doubts about the sustainability of this new journalistic models could give, offers the example of Wikipedia, a decentralised, Knowledge-producing community to a sober depiction of the human nature should work, there is some hope. Regardless of the final fate of this particular company there is little doubt that the production and consumption of news is another industry that will shake up the Blockchain technology. In the meantime, it will be exciting, one of the pioneers in watch as you explore the uncharted Terrain or even to join.
