Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales sets up Wikitribune to combat fake news
Let's be honest here, journalism is not what it used to be, with "fake news" spreading like wildfire, through sources which have nothing to do with journalism. Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia aims to tackle the problem by creating a crowd-funded platform, Wikitribune that brings seasoned journalists/volunteers together to provide fact-based articles. If you want a taste of "real" news, read on.
Farida Jalal died too many times in hands of media
When "fake news" broadcasts, it causes panic and people end up spreading the news without verifying its source or authenticity. There have been several instances of speculations getting precedence over factual data. Wikitribune aims to counter the effect of "fake news" by providing fact-based stories regarding local and global events that can be verified by the users by looking at the source of information.
"The news is broken and we can fix it"
The idea of Wikitribune didn't arise from the need to add one more voice to the already crowded scene, but it did from the inherent need of journalism to provide people with news and not hearsay or gossips. The website reads, "We're developing a living, breathing tool that'll present accurate information with real evidence so that you can confidently make up your own mind."
The business of giving news and not making it
A lot of esteemed media houses tend to forget that journalism is the business of providing news without bias or taking facts out of a loony bin. As Wikitribune puts it, "Facts can be presented with bias, taken out of context and most recently a lot of facts are just plain…made-up." So, it is aiming at providing news with only facts minus the fluff.
It's free, I repeat IT'S FREE
When you visit Wikitribune, you would not see advertisements about a car bundled with several others to get to the news that may or may not be pure fiction. Wikitribune is not going to have any pay walls or advertisements and if you think there is something wrong with the article, you can just flag it and it will go for review.
An ecosystem of community and journalists
Wikitribune aims to put its community at the helm of affairs rather than restrict it to just the "comment" section. It would be a site powered by its readers. Wikitribune puts forward the notion by saying, "Articles are authored, fact-checked, and verified by professional journalists and community members working side by side as equals, and supported not primarily by advertisers, but by readers."
If you have come till here, this is a request
True factual journalism is gradually becoming a lost art among a plethora of half-baked articles. News is for the people. It is "you" who is reading this at this very moment and that makes us do what we do and take immense pride in doing so. This is a big "THANK YOU" and a request, that you would continue to do the same.
