This is the new journalism:

I’m working on a prototype to use the GroupOn/crowdfunding model for local news — with a dash of blockchain.

Here’s how it goes:

  1. People post stories they want to be covered.
  2. A journalist who’s interested in writing that story accepts the offer with a price.
  3. Then the crowd determines if that story gets pursued by either funding the project or not funding the project.
  4. The original poster is, in this case, the de facto editor. And the crowd is the de facto editorial board.
  5. When the story is done, it’s published in draft form, exclusively to the backers.
  6. There’s two round of edits and then it’s published.
  7. Along with the story, the journalist publishes all of his/her materials and sources via an immutable, distributed ledger. This is done so future authors, researchers and, in general, for the public record, can reuse existing, corroborated facts.
  8. What’s also published are the names of all the backers.

This model creates value and solves many problems:

  • It brings unprecedented transparency.
  • It provides data lineage.
  • It create a public resource.
  • It provides citizens with direct access to journalistic/research resources.
  • It eliminates editor-based bias — or brings more editorial diversity.

Would you use this?

Would you be interested in being part of this?

Let me know!