NFTs can empower journalism to stay independent, free from Government's Coercion
These days, talented artists thanks to NFTs can sell their artwork as NFTs, and if they are lucky finding rich customers they can make fortures.
However, NFTS can be used in several beneficial ways and in this article I will talk about Ukraine using NFTs for preserving the true history of events on the entire episode of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
NFTs maybe the answer on how print media can empower themselves to stay independent
This gives us ideas of how independent journalism can still exist in a world where Governments are manipulating mainstream news, so truth is suppressed while misinformation and Government’s propaganda messages that are heavily promoted, reach the reading public.
Preserving true factual events of Russia’s war on Ukraine in NFTs
Check out the Meta History Meseum of War NFTs at their website - https://metahistory.gallery/warline
Ukraine has created the Meta History Museum of War web platform which has NFT collections, that are news pieces narrated through illustrations by Ukrainian and international artists. They are arranged in chronological order.
The idea of this is that the correct information is recorded about the events of the Russia - Ukraine war which will be history tomorrow. Obviously, as these NFTs will be stored in Blockchain, it’s immutable and will exist to be viewed by the public forever.
Sale of these NFTs raise funds for funding Ukraine’s army and helping civilians
Also, sale of these NFTs generate funds that would go into the crypto accounts of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, to be used to strengthen the Ukrainian army and provide relief to the Ukrainian Citizens.
You can checkout the Meta History Museum of war web platform here - https://metahistory.gallery/
So, NFTs can be used to preserve news event pieces in Blockchain, while their sales can be used for fundraising.
Print Media journals can raise funds from their readers by selling news as NFT subscriptions
[Image Source](Image by Mahesh Patel from Pixabay)
Print Media has to find novel ways to continue to be supported and funded by its reader community alone to be free from Government’s coercion
Indian Government has made it difficult for independent journals to obtain funding
An independent journalistic publication publishes factual news without being afraid of being critical of Government policies, measures etc.
For this, the journalistic entity should not be under the control and influence of the Government. This means, the journalistic entity should not be funded by the Government but by their loyal following of readers.
This is similar to the decentralized ethos of crypto, where everything is community managed.
The problem for these journalistic entities, is that as they freely publish content that critiques the Government, they have attracted the powerful ire of the Indian Government and such journalists are arrested, or arrest charge sheets are filed against them. Therefore, the few independent news publication entities that exist in India today are always under severe pressure.
The Government can make it very difficult for journalistic entities to receive funding by readers as they control the country's banking and payment systems. For instance, who knows payment gateways can be blocked as it was done by the Government of Canada in the Freedom Convoy protests.
So, such news publications can make use of NFTs where they can sell their news piece as NFT subscriptions and get funds to sustain their operations. It’s just an idea. Anyway, will talk exclusively about independent journalism in another article
No option of donating to independent journals anonymously - No Privacy
I care about independent journalism, which is why I contributed funds to two news publications I read - the Wire and scroll.
When I contributed, I had to provide all my details including my pan card number, so it was inconvenient, as there was no option for maintaining our privacy. This is probably because these journalistic entities want to be careful, as the Government may take action on them saying their funding sources are obscure, never mind how obscure Government’s accounts are!!
Support Us page of the Wire. Supporters who want to contribute can't contribute anonymously!!
This is why this story of how Ukraine has used NFTs to store the correct news and fundraise, interested me. I am sure those NFTs can be brought more anonymously.
Thank you for reading!!
I will be observing if this can add impact to the Journalist world but nonetheless, as for NFT I am really concerned about how it is going and I am wondering if we will get it right with NFT someday.
I think its going in the right direction slowly, ofcouse, artist hypes have to cut down further!!
Friend, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that NFTs would be used that way. I mean, I hadn't thought about it, I find it surprising.
I guess necessity goes hand in hand with ingenuity and Ukrainian is using every possible way to get ahead even if they have no backing of anything. Now the world has become their backer, let's just hope that this situation doesn't last too long.
#affable #venezuela
Yes, Ukraine is so much into crypto technologes, making use of them, its quite interesting and this idea is prety novel indeed!!
If you dream of crypto and NFTs you definitely will be richer beyond your wildest dreams someday too...
Hello, good article. I like it ;-) But one remark. You wrote " Obviously, as these NFTs will be stored in Blockchain, it’s immutable and will exist to be viewed by the public forever." This is not the full truth. You cannot store all the material on the blockchain. For example to burn a picture into a NFT you take the hash value of the image an burn it into the NFT. This way you can proove that the image existed at the point of time the NFT was created. You could even take an image and an addtional description und take the hash value representing both. But the thing is: The digital asset you took the hash from must be stored somewhere. For example in IPFS or on some server or on some optical medium. The blockchain helps to proove that the digital asset existed at the point of time the mining of the NFT happend. But the blockchain cannot guarantee that the picture is still accessable or even exists in 10, 20 or more years.
@thomasoss, I did not know all this, thanks for the clarifiation. ALthough I have to understand what you explained again much better, to comment on t=it.
Thankyou for reading and this insightful detail!!
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