Over the past year, fake news has become a huge issue. It has clouded local and national stories and has influenced multiple elections on a global scale. It’s abundantly clear that everyone agrees the fake news trend needs to stop, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has proposed a solution.
I am making something new. I hope you like it. https://t.co/BYCWDkydBU #wikitribune
— Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales) April 24, 2017
Enter WikiTribune. Like it’s encyclopedia predecessor, WikiTribune hosts a large networked community of journalists and volunteers that work on every story continuously and in unison. Boasting the tagline “Evidence-based journalism”, evidence is gathered from numerous sources and carefully vetted/verified by professionals and the community TOGETHER before any conclusion is determined.
The articles are then composed by multiple editors to eliminate overly individual or organized bias. And it doesn’t end there. Just like Wikipedia, editors and journalists will constantly be fact checking and amending articles to deliver the most reliable and confirmed facts possible to base your opinion on.
But how will it be successful in doing something that traditional news is struggling to accomplish? Arguably, WikiTribune’s biggest claim to fame in this matter is it’s financial model. It’s funding is derived from using private donations and subscriptions, but because it is open-source and community driven, the monetary upkeep holds no influence over what is published or amended.
Journalists will work on equal ground with the community to gather, present and approve collectively. Leaving a global editorial ecosystem where researching and publishing stories are not financially incentivized but fact driven.
Basically, picture an organization like Wiki-Leaks, but in editoral form, without the legal gray area and disruptive agenda. We also get high level transparency with every reference source provided to dissuade any conflict of interest concern.
While we can possibly expect trolling similar to what we get on Wikipedia, “meme-mendments” and fake news submissions will see little staying power, if any, in this system due to it’s real time nature. I personally think it would be cool if this site could see a future Facebook extension to juxtapose Facebook’s recent internal attempts to flag fake stories. For every flagged fake story we could also see a Wiki-T verified story!
Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear: It’s free! Donations are encouraged to support the site, but the founder believes facts should be just as free and available as any other type of information.
You shouldn’t have to pay a premium or spray and pray on google search to get the facts and now you don’t have to.
The site is currently looking for supporters, journalists and editors to help contribute so if this sounds like the best thing ever, show your support or join the team here. In the mean time, our BS meters will just have to keep working overtime.
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