Blockchain: The restoration of links between journalism and its audience

Abstract

The attention economy concept (Herbert Simon, 1969) lies at the center of the institutionally mediated communication system (IMCS) and it is consequently the source of value of that system. The ability to produce attention where there previously was none is the criterion than includes or excludes the intentions to operate in the system. From this perspective, audience is not only a consequence of IMCS or the last link in the chain but is also its core and main function. Accordingly, placing the dominant logic on the accumulation of audience at the center, we can distinguish between different IMCS concretions. This paper analyzes a sample of the main journalistic projects using blockchain technology from the standpoint of the audience as capital, lending special attention to the journalist-audience link. This allows us to judge the transformative capacity of such projects.