Here’s Why the Aziz Ansari Article Wouldn’t Have Been Published on DNN
Author: Anita Sthankiya
Comedian Aziz Ansari was unwittingly thrusted into the spotlight last month, and it wasn’t because of his onscreen work. In January, feminist online website Babe.com published a report detailing an encounter between a 23-year-old woman and Ansari. In part one of this two-part series we looked at the lack of journalistic integrity reflected in that article and why it was heavily criticized by reputable sources, such as The Washington Post and New York Times.
In this edition, we will discuss how the story could have been told through a decentralized lens and if it would have been published as a result.
The Decentralized News Network (DNN) prides itself on providing a news platform that comes from a decentralized network. With factual content curated by the community, DNN strives to produce news that is balanced and thoroughly accurate, while using incentivization.
By utilizing the power of the ethereum blockchain, DNN can never be hacked into, taken down, or censored. Since the platform is censorship-resistant, content cannot be suppressed. Unlike traditional media, DNN relies on a consensus of content reviewers, rather than a central authority to determine what should be published.
Based on DNN’s core values, let’s put the Babe article up to the test and see if it would have been published on this decentralized platform.
Once an article is submitted from a writer on DNN it will go through an extensive review process, which allows for fact-checkers to validate the content for overall accuracy and legitimacy. This process means writers cannot push for their article to be fast-tracked and made a priority. The piece must go through the process like any other submitted article with no bias or intention attached.
In order for the article to stand up to the vetting process, reviewers must adhere to guidelines and content policies before it can be published. This process may entail a bit of back-and-forth between reviewers and writers, while reviewers ask for sources and additional information to back-up their claims.
While DNN doesn’t have a requirement for how many sources an article needs, the article still needs to be deemed neutral in order to be published. With that being said, it can be difficult to be 100 percent neutral, but if an article contains opposing sources, it should include equal time for each position. Based on what was submitted in the Babe article, it would have been rejected for the DNN guidelines. Unless Ansari had offered a statement, the article would have been considered bias and one-sided. A third source would have also been helpful, to legally determine if the encounter did in fact constitute as criminal sexual assault or not. By consulting this third source, it would provide the reader with a balanced opinion of what occurred. Journalism is very rarely black and white, and often it is up to the editorial team to find solutions for setbacks and difficulties that can arise from stories such as this one.
Let’s say these qualifications were met, the writer could go forward with putting the piece together for the DNN platform. The style in which the article was presented would not have been accepted by the DNN reviewers. As pointed out in the first article in this series, the Babe reporter used a mix of a personal essay with editorial comments. The piece didn’t follow the journalistic standard of fact based information.
In order to be approved by the peer reviewed community on DNN, the author would need to present the material in an unbiased fashion. A personal essay and editorial comments would have been rejected. The author of the original article also included a substantial amount of information comparing Ansari’s fictional television characters to himself, which would have crossed the guidelines for DNN. The comparison of his on screen work and real life would have been considered as bias, and lacking of relevant fact based information pertaining to the body of the article.
Overall, unless these issues were addressed and rectified, the Babe article would not have been published on DNN. But then we must ask the question, should there be a place in journalism for articles such as these?
It’s a difficult one to answer because not all articles can be evenly balanced, and not all articles can include a response from one or many parties. Journalists can strive to make every voice heard, but often times people choose to leave their voice out of the conversation for one reason or another. If Ansari choose not to respond to the claims in the Babe article, does that mean it should not have been published? You could argue yes because it doesn’t meet the standard for neutrality. But realistically, sometimes it can be extremely difficult to find neutrality even when you strive for it.
Here’s where responsible storytelling comes into play. A piece should never be silenced because one party wants it to be. The responsibility of the journalist is to find another source to support or deny the claim being made. They need to do their best to tell the story without personal bias and definitely without a pre-existing agenda. If this criteria cannot be met, the story should be reviewed for legitimacy and perhaps reconsidered either from another angle or dropped completely. Some articles are appropriate for news, while others are appropriate for editorial. It’s important for a responsible news team to decide what will be published and what can be left on the newsroom floor, based on journalistic ethics, neutrality, and overall newsworthiness.
Just because a story doesn’t fall into the guidelines and practices set up by the professional journalism organization, that doesn’t mean it should be silenced. It just needs to find the appropriate platform to exist.
About DNN
DNN is a news curation platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. It’s our goal to encourage the dissemination of factual, unbiased political news by incentivizing accountability at all levels of the news consumption process. We’re news for the people, by the people.
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