How Has Blockchain Been Portrayed?
Once again digging into my 2018 thesis in digestible posts!
Media Coverage Content Comparison
The idea of different media coverage and engaging with a content analysis for this research was informed by several concepts and social developments. First, the idea of enactment is important, especially when we examine the coverage of a niche area from what would be considered mainstream media compared to more niche media sources that would be most like industry publications or enthusiast blogs. While it is easy to get an idea of the mainstream media’s view simply by looking at the headlines through a search, I wanted to get a bit deeper an analysis, and thought that separating the mainstream stories from the blockchain media stories and running a word frequency query in NVIVO would produce some simple, if novel insights.
The mainstream stories content was gathered from CBC, CTV News, and Global News websites. I simply did a search using the key terms “Bitcoin”, “Blockchain”, and “Ethereum”, as these were the most likely covered by mainstream media sources. I then took the top 10 unique and relevant stories for each search term. Even some of these search terms came up with less than 10 total responses, in which case I took as many articles that were unique and relevant that existed for the source. I printed out the story as a pdf, eliminating as much of the extraneous advertising text as possible, and added them to the source data file. The total number of news articles that were used in content analysis for the mainstream media portion was 53.
For the blockchain specific media, I had been gathering a large collection of bookmarks throughout the entire research process. I collected and printed pdf versions of all relevant pieces that I encountered through my ethnography, through my involvement with QBIC, that were targeted to me by online advertising based on my interest in the area, and anything that I came across within the research process. I ended up with 108 articles and pieces from a variety of sources — blockchain media, forums, company websites and discussions, blogs, Github, and anywhere that the issues and news about blockchain tech were being discussed.
While the content analysis conducted using word frequencies is not extensively complicated, nor will it give us tremendous insight into coverage of the blockchain space, it is still helpful to observe some simple and telling similarities and differences between the two areas. These insights are made more valuable when combined with the ethnographic and semi-structured interview data to give a better overall snapshot of the space. Easy similarities to spot from the tables are that the main highly used words are Bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrency in both areas. This should not be a surprise, given that they were used as keywords in the mainstream media search terms, and it should be no surprise that the blockchain space media already uses these terms extensively as well. There are other words that are shared between clouds that should make sense: currency, change, state(s), business, organization(s). One shared word that I found interesting in its discrepancy for placement was ethereum. Usually considered the second major unique project within the blockchain space and the first smart-contract platform is the 11th top word in the blockchain space media with a weighted percentage of 0.25, while ethereum is the 60th top word in the mainstream media with a weighted percentage of 0.17. This should also give some indication of the variety of coverage offered by the blockchain space media, and an indicator of the mainstream media’s coverage of mostly Bitcoin as opposed to any other projects happening in the wider blockchain space.
Some of the most interesting word inclusions that only appeared in the mainstream media table were scam, hacker, government, and capital. Again, this gives a slight indicator of the treatment of the technology in the content of the mainstream media stories. I also think it is significant that even though much of the discussion and content within the blockchain space media is created by people that are likely to conform to some of the aspects of the hacker ethic and may or may not identify as hackers, and some of the content pulled was from hacker communities, the word hacker still did not make the frequency table in the blockchain space analysis. Considering the application of the Bullshit Token discussed in the hacker culture section of the theory chapter, it is evident that individuals within the blockchain space are also concerned about scams, but again this word does not appear in the table.
Words that only appeared in the blockchain space media table included community, telegram, developing, design and merit. The existence of these words only in the blockchain space table is also significant, and provides important differential insight when compared to the mainstream media coverage. Merit is significant given that meritocracy is one of the identified characteristics of the hacker ethic. Design tends to have technological implications for developers, so this inclusion may relate to platform or development considerations. Telegram is an encrypted (though not by default) instant messaging service that is sometimes used in the blockchain space to facilitate conversations between developers or companies and their users in similar ways that slack and discord are also used in some instances. Community is also a telling inclusion and provides insight into the social aspect of the blockchain space, and appeared even more than ethereum with a weighted percentage of 0.26. The aspect of a community outside of the mainstream also lends itself slightly to the concept of prefigurative politics in technological space and blockchain-centric media coverage.
Given that mainstream media is considered to have broad reach in the general population, the coverage and framing of blockchain technology is important. This is highlighted further by the discrepancy in coverage between the mainstream and blockchain space media. Using a combination of multiplicity, enactment and risk theory, it seems that the existence of multiple views on the technology itself may be in part a result of where individuals get their media, and if they are willing or able to dig deeper to find information beyond what is being reported in the mainstream news outlets. If we consider risk in all of this, it ties in neatly with the findings of Henry, Huynh, and Nicholls that while “around 64% of Canadians have heard of Bitcoin, only 2.9% own it” (2017: ii). This would match if we accept the concept that the mainstream media reaches much more of the general public, and tend to focus on problematic or criminal aspects of blockchain technology, especially in the case of Bitcoin.
Most Exciting and Problematic Aspects of Blockchain
To give a bit deeper discussion of the blockchain space, I asked respondents of my survey to tell me about the aspects of the blockchain space that they are most excited about or that they find the most problematic. This was an attempt to gain insights from those involved in the space to show aspects beyond what tends to be covered in media coverage around hype and fiat price crashes in the crypto markets.
In order to give the best detail, I will simply list the factors for both concern and excitement, and note where there were multiple answers fitting the concept. These answers were all adapted from responses to the semi-structured survey.
Exciting:
- Decentralizing access to information and processes previously walled off by institutions x4
- Improvement of existing industry practices x3
- Horizontally empowering x3
- Impacts on democracy and law x2
- Backbone for larger tech to build on
- Government sponsorship of development
- Efficiency of money transfer
- Emerging asset class
Problematic:
- Tunnel vision of blockchain as a currency tech — much more than that x2
- Not enough focus on tech and adoption x2
- Regulatory concerns and stifling development x2
- Focus on “getting rich quick”
- Excessive token issuance when not necessary
- Unstoppable autonomous networks running nefarious code ex. spam network
- Misconceptions for use cases
- Inability to scale while retaining full function while also using energy efficiently
- Failing or fraudulent ICO’s
- Security and bugs
- Economic disruption
I also asked what respondents thought the most important recent or upcoming development in the space was. This was an attempt to get an idea of the preferred routes of development in the space that individuals involved would like to see continue. Again, this list is adapted from the responses taken from the semi-structured survey.
Most Important Developments:
Bitcoin Lightning Network x3
Government interest in development x2
Rightmesh (Creating cell-phone based nodes for network infrastructure to give connectivity in currently unconnected spaces)
Experimentation with different scalability approaches
Ethereum’s Casper (moving to Proof of Stake)
Basic Attention Token/BRAVE Browser — positively reshaping the internet advertising industry
Supply chain transparency and consumer awareness
References from this section:
Bullshit.Money. 2017. “Bullshit.Money”. Retrieved January 10th 2018 (https://bullshit-money.github.io)
Henry, Christopher S., Kim P. Huynh, and Gradon Nicholls. 2017. Bitcoin Awareness and Usage in Canada. Staff Working Paper. Currency Department, Bank of Canada.
