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A survey for the application of blockchain technology in the media

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Abstract

In recent years, the news industry, digital rights management, digital advertising, content production and social media are facing inevitable problems, such as fake news spreading, press freedom conflicts, advertising fraud, difficulties in digital rights management, defects in content production mechanisms, and rumor spreading aggravated by social media. Fortunately, the development of blockchain technology, characterized by decentralization, security, and tamper-proof, offers a brand-new perspective on the above problems. Existing research and projects on this topic firmly believe in the new opportunities for the media industry brought by blockchain technology. This study mainly focuses on the following parts: (1) Describe current difficulties faced by the media; (2) Review the relevant research and projects on blockchain applications in the media industry, and discuss the possibility of developing “Blockchain + Media”; (3) Summarize the shortcomings and challenges of blockchain application in media. Through investigation, it is found that blockchain has great potential for media development, but current studies on this topic are still in early-stage, and the results need to be observed.

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Acknowledgements

we express our gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and the editor in chief for their valuable comments and suggestions which helped us to improve the content and presentation of this paper.

Funding

This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFC1604003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Cultural Development, Wuhan, University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Liqun Liu

  2. Center for Studies of Media Development, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Liqun Liu

  3. School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Weihan Zhang & Cunqi Han

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  1. Liqun Liu
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Correspondence to Cunqi Han.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection: Special Issue on Blockchain for Peer-to-Peer Computing

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Liu, L., Zhang, W. & Han, C. A survey for the application of blockchain technology in the media. Peer-to-Peer Netw. Appl. 14, 3143–3165 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12083-021-01168-5

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