With the effective use of blockchain to combat fake news, we can potentially expect an authentic deliverance of news.
We read and watch a lot of news every day but have you ever thought how genuine the information being provided is? Have you ever taken an initiative to verify the news being reported? If not, then you absolutely should because ‘not everything you see is what it appears to be.’ According to a poll conducted by Axios and SurveyMonkey, 72 percent of Americans believe that “major media publications report news they know are false.’’ But sometimes the entire process of identifying the source and verifying the news can be quite a time consuming, here’s where technology can be of service. By making use of blockchain to combat fake news, we can identify who or what the source is and thus verify it.
How we can use blockchain to combat fake news
Blockchain technology is not just about cryptocurrency anymore; the blockchain technology is moving beyond cryptocurrency and has started offering its features across various sectors such as healthcare, education, and real estate. It has just made its presence felt in the field of journalism and, if effectively utilized, it can potentially be very beneficial to prevent the reporting of fake news. Some of the elements that determine how blockchain could possibly help combat fake news are as follows:
Transparency
One of the prominent features of blockchain technology is the transparency it can provide. Recently, a community-owned network for journalism was established earlier this year that specializes in providing transparency to the members involved. This journalism community entirely works on cryptocurrency tokens. Anyone can register with the mentioned community and can set up a newsroom. The members can get access to the newsroom and get to know who is responsible for reporting certain news. In this way, the journalism community helps in maintaining the transparency of the news.
Traceability
Just like the transparency, the use of blockchain can possibly help trace the origin of the news. Whenever you doubt a reporting source or feel like questioning the originality of the news, you can track the news source easily by identifying who reported it and when it was reported. This feature of the blockchain can greatly help prevent the generation of fake news.
Decentralization
A blockchain is decentralized, which implies that multiple parties are involved in the network. Referring to the community-owned network mentioned earlier, according to their community policy, any member can challenge a newsroom that is suspicious of delivering fake news. Also, other members have the right to vote for or against the newsroom that has been challenged. If the newsroom is found to be reporting fake news, then it is eventually rejected by the community.
The emerging technology that Blockchain is and the transparency and traceability it can provide, we can leverage the features of blockchain to combat fake news and thus can help rebuild the trust of people in media. Though the blockchain technology has just made its appearance in the journalism community, but many media publications might not be aware of the benefits it holds. If blockchain technology is implemented on a large scale, it can potentially bring about a revolutionary change in the world of journalism.
