Journalism is under siege, that's undeniable: at the beginning of October journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Saudi Arabia's consulate and the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, often criticised by Khashoggi, was accused of organising the killing; US President Trump, a man who labels all unfavourable reports against him as "fake news", recently attacked CNN journalist Jim Acosta who questioned him about the caravan of Central American asylum seekers at a press conference after the mid-term elections, and soon afterwards the White House revoked Acosta's press pass. In the meantime, in Italy the Five Star Movement (M5S, now governing the country together with far-right wing party The League) called journalists "jackals", "whores" and spreaders of "fake news" in connection with the coverage of the alleged abuse of power by MS5 Mayor of Rome Virginia Raggi.
So would it be possible to defend journalism from these attacks, while helping journalists getting the time and money for their researchers and investigations? Earlier on this year Brooklyn-based Civil Media Co. stated it was going to create a new journalism economy using the blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The technology allows to distribute data on a network of nodes using cryptography, removing in this way the necessity for information to be controlled by a central authority.
Civil's plan consisted in creating a sort of a blockchain-based network for journalism: after raising over $5 million from blockchain venture firm (by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin) ConsenSys, Civil aimed at selling $34 million of "Civil (CVL) Tokens" for $8 - $24 million. CVL tokens could then be used by consumers (and not by investors or speculators) to financially support independent newsrooms on the Civil platform with all token transactions recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.
The idea behind Civil was mainly establishing a free and independent press (working on local coverage, investigative and public policy reporting), and a link between journalists and citizens, eliminating advertising and third-party interests.
Yet things didn't work out that well so far: the token sale wasn't successful (only 1,012 investors purchased $1,435,491 worth of CVL tokens), the $8 million goal wasn't raised as hoped by 15th October and the startup had to announce they were going to refund transactions.
News organizations to which Civil tried to sell tokens and start partnerships - The New York Times, The Washington Post and Dow Jones & Co. among the others - refused to join the partnership (at the same time, Forbes announced at the beginning of October that it will be the first media brand to start publishing content on the Civil platform and 13 newsrooms signed to be on the Civil platform, including the Colorado Sun, and Documented, covering immigration policy in New York City).
Besides, Civil co-founder, Daniel Sieberg, a former technology journalist at CNN and CBS News, stated the business plan was flawed (apart from being a bit convoluted as well...) which is understandable if you consider the fact that there were no specific information about the size of the network of journalists involved and of consumers, and that cryptocurrencies have a volatile value, so the price of CVL could crash anytime.
Civil's idea - creating a new environment for matching a creator and a content with paying audience, a marketplace regulated by the community (that said the community can commit mistakes...) - seemed bold, but it must be said that it doesn't necessarily generate any revenue for newsrooms to support themselves and their journalists.
Civil turned to the blockchain to foster independence and establish a responsible and ethical journalism policy: this technology ensures integrity as publications can store articles in a secure database (and therefore not concentrate them on a single server controlled by a powerful company), where they cannot be altered or tampered with (unless a voting majority of Civil citizens agree to do so).
But could the blockchain and cryptocurrencies be used to develop new models for fashion journalism as well? Adverts have always supported all sorts of publications, from small to big ones, and fashion journalism thrived on advertising: it is well known that writing an unfavourable review of a runway show or a mildly critical feature implies the loss of your seat at a catwalk show and of the contract from that powerful fashion house for their new beauty ad.
Eleven years ago Franca Sozzani, the late Editor in Chief of Vogue Italia and L'Uomo Vogue, was at the centre of a major conflict of interests as her partner and Vogue Italia/L'Uomo Vogue art director Luca Stoppini, also directed an advertising company and used to take care of the campaigns of quite a few fashion houses and brands appearing on Condé Nast magazines. The conflict sparked a debate: should these figures be called consu-journalists (a hybrid term combining "consultant" and "journalist") and should they be considered as objective reporters if their lack of integrity and criticism damaged the fashion system?
The answer was never found, but in the meantime traditional advertising models that supported journalism and in particular fashion journalism collapsed with the arrival of social media; new technologies introduced innovative systems to reach out to readers and consumers and, as brands started investing in new ways to advertise their products, ad revenue disappeared pushing some publications to find other funding alternatives (including installing cryptocurrency mining software on their websites, a trick that uses the computer resources of readers and that may be considered as unfair as users may not be aware of it).
Would the blockchain help? Well, the blockchain and cryptocurrencies could create a platform for a free and independent press, but this may not be of interest to mainstream fashion journalism. Blockchain technology can help introduce a new, ad-free model, but fashion doesn't exist without adverts and, while readers may be intrigued at the prospect of objective news stories about a fashion house or a designer (rather than in the usual trite articles about the best coats to buy this winter or the latest "It" bag being modelled by this or that particular celebrity), autonomous, impartial and objective journalism in fashion may remain a unicorn as it is would be almost impossible to write investigative features about a specific fashion house without having access to it (and PR officers wouldn't let you do it).
As for payments in cryptocurrencies, well, while it would be intriguing to see if readers would be willing to do micropayments in cryptocurrencies for an article that could raise the tone of online fashion discourse, or if established magazines would use them to speed up payment processes (that can be long and annoying especially if you're a freelancer based in Europe and you're collaborating with magazines located in Asia). At the same time, cryptocurrencies may create further confusion and lead to unfair practices: at the moment there are influencers being paid in (money, garments, accessories, beauty products, trips...) in accordance with the (at times inflated and fake) numbers of followers and often they are not disclosing their blog/Instagram posts as adverts. Cryptocurrencies may be used for other purposes, such as reaching out to an influencer and paying them to write an unfavourable review of a product by a competitor or paying somebody to write a piece that sounds like a proper feature but it is actually a paid and undisclosed sponsored post, and then making such payments untraceable.
That said it is worth paying attention to the blockchain and cryptocurrencies because this is a dynamic and evolving field, but, rather than technology, fashion journalism needs a new ecosystem where conglomerates are not scared of reporters asking questions and designers do not use PR officers to answer questions sent to them via email, a new place where investigations could also be carried out (hands up who would like an investigation into the links between criminal organisations and the fashion industry?). In a nutshell, reshaping fashion journalism may be an entirely human endeavour rather than a matter of super innovative technologies.
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