Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has announced Wikitribune – a new publication that is designed to combat the spread of fake news.
Wikipedia might be the power behind many a university degree, and now Wikitribune – a newspaper unveiled by Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales – could well be the next big step in stemming the dissemination of fake news.
Wikitribune is a new online publication that’ll be constituted by a team of professional journalists and interested readers to produce and public news stories.
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According to Wales, the site will be informed by a dedication to facts – readers will be able to see the sources that informed each story, while journalists will be able to share materials such as transcripts to display the editing process in as transparent a form as possible.
In a statement to The Verge, Wales offered that “This is something I’ve been thinking about for a very long time… but things came to a head for me post-Brexit and post-Donald Trump. There’s a feeling things have gone wrong. The quality of media has declined in many areas — not all areas — and there’s a real desire by the public for something more serious and more reliable.”
Wikitribune will be ad-free, and interested readers will be able to order subscriptions of around $15 USD that will let them have influence on the site’s coverage through suggestions and special requests.
For example, paying users could request pieces on specialist subjects, or even coverage pertinent to a specific area should enough funds be raised to find a local report. Wales has commented that such endeavours won’t compromise the neutrality of the site, as all articles will still be subject to the same fact-checking and transparency standards.
The same strategy will apply to Wikitribune’s audience reach – Wales cited that should the site develop meaningful content, it shouldn’t need to optimize for social media. Citing his other famous creation, Wales offered that “One thing that’s still true is that word of mouth is very powerful… People do talk about things. Wikipedia has never paid a penny for advertising, but yet remains one of the most popular things in the world.”
Wikitribune will launch through a crowd-funding platform, and will initially cover stories from realms such as US politics all the way to science and technology. The first team to run the site will be comprised of ten professional journalists, alongside members of the community that will be able to suggest edits to a story that will be published once approved by a staff member or ‘trusted volunteer’.
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What are your thoughts? Can Wales’ bold idea save journalism from the scourge of fake news? Be sure to leave your opinion in the comments below!
Follow Bryan Smith on Twitter: @bryansmithSA
Visit Wikitribune here
