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How Can Blockchain Technology Benefit the Media?

Economy General Human Science
25.04.2021
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How Can Blockchain Technology Benefit the Media?

Understanding Blockchain Technology 

According to https://builtin.com, Blockchain technology is most simply defined as a decentralized, distributed ledger that records the provenance of a digital asset. The data on a blockchain is unable to be modified by inherent design, which makes it a legitimate disruptor for industries like payments, cybersecurity, and healthcare.

According to Ms. Okoye, the CEO of iNSPARK Enterprise, a Nigeria-based tech firm, “it is an accounting system where the ledger (record of transactions) is distributed among a network of computers. So at its core, blockchain technology is simply a record-keeping tool.”

Blockchain technology promises a practical solution to the challenges of storing, managing, and protecting data. It provides a practical and highly secure way of authenticating information, identities, transactions, and more – creating a super-secure record that can be updated in real-time.

While listing the attributes of Blockchain technology, Osinachi, the foremost African Cryptoatist, explains that a blockchain is a database that stores encrypted blocks of data then chains them together to form a chronological single-source-of-truth for the data. Other characteristics of blockchain technology include digital assets distributed instead of copied or transferred, creating an immutable investment record. Under that, this asset is decentralized, allowing full real-time access and transparency to the public. Blockchain Technology is more like a transparent ledger of changes that preserves the integrity of the document, which creates trust in the asset. Finally, Blockchain’s inherent security measures and public ledger make it a prime technology for almost every sector. He concluded.

How Does It Work?

Blockchain is, in basic terms, a secure and encrypted digital database shared by all parties in a distributed network. Any transaction in the network is recorded, verified, and stored in the database and visible to all participants, creating an unalterable transaction log. “This essentially results in a golden source of truth that everyone can trust. That’s primarily one of the reasons why it’s called the ‘technology of trust,'” says Christine Moy, program lead of J.P. Morgan’s Blockchain Center of Excellence. This structure bestows unique properties on a blockchain, including greater transparency and security, because transaction activity can be tracked, fully verified and audited.

 MIT Technology Review that the whole point of using a blockchain lets people — in particular, people who don’t trust one another — share valuable data in a secure, tamper-proof way.

Initially, when a user creates a transaction over a Blockchain network, a block will be created, representing that transaction. Once a partnership is made, the requested transaction is broadcasted over the peer-to-peer network, consisting of computers, known as nodes, which then validate the transaction. A verified transaction can involve cryptocurrency, contracts, records, or any other valuable information. Once a transaction is confirmed, it is combined with other blocks to create a new data block for the ledger. It is important to note that with each new transaction, a secured partnership is created, which are connected and bound to each other using cryptographic principles. Whenever a new block is made, it is added to the existing Blockchain network confirming that it is connected and immutable. – Nitish Srivastava

The whole idea is to protect each other as Blockchain does not store any of its information in a central location. Instead, the Blockchain is copied and spread across a network of computers. Whenever a new block is added to the Blockchain, every computer on the web updates its Blockchain to reflect the change

Where does the intersection between Blockchain Technology and the media happen?

Although blockchain is still most associated with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, the emerging technology can offer multipurpose business applications for a range of industries. As we continue to watch distributed ledger adoption and innovation spread across sectors, one sector, in particular, stands to gain substantially from the transparency and traceability that blockchain offers. Media and entertainment provide an interesting use case because of two challenges the industry has struggled with as content has gone digital: the ability to protect and monetize intellectual property.

The media and entertainment industry is a contracts-based business that places a premium on intellectual property protection. Blockchain has the potential to increase profits for content creators and media companies and provide real-time consumption-based pricing. As blockchain technology matures, media and entertainment executives should be learning about the technology and the potential use cases for their business.

How can Blockchain technology benefit the media?

The decentralized structure of blockchain could enable content creators—such as musicians or writers—to directly distribute their work to consumers, bypassing traditional distribution channels and leaving a larger share of the revenue for content creators themselves. Tatiana Koffman asserts that since the media and entertainment industry is primarily relationship-based, it also means that creators are often put at a disadvantage by middlemen margins and stealth profits. This has been particularly exaggerated because many artists are never taught or exposed to the intricacies of business, law, and finance in their pursuit of creativity and artistic expression. With the help of blockchain technology, the industry could potentially eliminate fraud, vastly reduce costs, and increase transparency overall.

She further explains that one of the most outstanding issues in entertainment is ownership and rights management over the content. The awkwardness of tracking who owns what across audio, visual, and written content has created big lawsuits and payment disputes. Blockchain promises a way to track IP across multiple channels effectively. Using this new technology, intellectual property rights can be appropriately followed, and digital rights management companies can access the entire record of transactions made.

Distributed ledger technology can also create an efficient application of accounting and timely access to profits for both creators and investors. Frequently, profits are held by either labels or studios, and artists and other stakeholders can be left waiting for months to see any monetary compensation for their hours of work while accounting takes place. She concluded that Blockchain technology is ideally suited to provide liquidity for all of its stakeholders.

What is keeping you from securing your content? Let us know in the comment section!

Sources

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AUTHOR INFO
Ekene Odigwe
Ekene Odigwe
Ekene Odigwe is the 2020 Winner Merck Foundation Stay At Home Media Recognition Awards on Radio for Nigeria. 2016 winner On-Air Personality of the year, and 2012 winner Nigeria Radio Awards for News and Actuality. He has expert certification on Social media in Public Relations from the National University of Singapore, Digital footprint Analysis from the University of Edinburgh, Gender, Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace from the University of Pittsburgh, Citizen Journalism and New Media from YaLa Academy's Aileen Getty School of Citizen Journalism California, Diploma in Information Security and Cyber Law from India among others. He is a media trainer and for a decade now he has been helping content creators, aspiring and professional journalists gain a grounding in the history, ethics and values of journalism because he has witnessed how misinformation and unguarded report can set a town on fire. He currently coordinates Journalism courses at the West Africa Broadcast Media Academy (WABMA) Ekene has a track record in development journalism with major impacts in Fact-checking, Covid 19 reporting, and Gender / Diversity reporting with published articles in over 25 newspapers, online blogs and news sites.
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