Blockchain wasn’t the only item on the agenda at this year’s WEF, nor was technological transformation. But it might have been difficult to escape the discussions around the topic of“fake news” and the extent of its political ramifications. Speaking on a panel, Fake News versus Real Politics, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales encapsulated the current media paradigm quite nicely when addressing a question on the impact of the advertising model on the democratic discourse:

“The advertising only business model has been incredibly destructive for journalism. One of the most encouraging signs that I’ve seen in the last couple of years is the incredible surge in digital-only subscriptions to the New York Times and other quality papers. People are finally understanding, hey actually, we need to pay for quality journalism.”

He may be onto something. According to a 2017 Gallup poll, a meager 16 percent of Americans trust the information they read on the Internet. Trust in print journalism had been declining for decades but actually spiked up since the 2016 U.S. presidential election for list of obvious reasons, as the poll touches on. A similar 2017 Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey on Trust, Media and Democracy offers further details on this sentiment:

Nearly three-quarters of Americans believe that inaccurate information on the Internet is a major problem.

Americans say it is harder rather than easier to be informed due to the number of information sources today.

More than eight in ten adults in the U.S. believe that the news media are critical or very important to democracy.

Journalism is facing a challenge with the business model itself, something discussed by the WEF panel at some length. Today’s model relies on click-throughs, which are bread and butter for advertisers.

Yang Yanqing, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Yicai Media Group, speaking during the Cypto Asset Bubble session. Photo credit: Greg Beadle, WEF forum.

Wales emphasizes that journalism “can’t compete” if the business model for journalism relies upon clicks that are the revenue driver of advertising algorithms.

What advertisers can charge depends not just upon clicks, but user engagement, retention, and other measures on the likelihood of an actual purchase by a reader. That might be good if you’re trying to sell a cool product that appeals to a particular channel or social media affinity group. However, it’s probably obvious to state that getting lots of clicks is not synonymous with any sort of measure of accurate or responsible news reporting.

There are other means to encourage user participation and reader engagement. Micropayments done on the blockchain could monetize articles and help transparency. Decisions on what content to publish — under a rigorous set of standards — could rest with the audience. This model is the structure Decentralized News Network (DNN) is currently rolling out.

About DNN

DNN is a news curation platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. It’s our goal to encourage the dissemination of factual, unbiased political news by incentivizing accountability at all levels of the news consumption process. We’re news for the people, by the people.

Read our latest stories on the DNN Medium channel. Visit the DNN website to learn more about our project. Stay up-to-date with the latest project news by following our social channels: Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also join our project conversation on Slack, Telegram, and Reddit. Our DNN token presale is currently live. To participate, contact presale@dnn.media.

We’re currently in need of journalists, writers, readers, and editors to test out our Alpha updates! Check out our website today, and let us know what you think. Participating in our Alpha will earn you bounty stakes for our DNN Token.