Gitex Global 2022 discusses how to educate mainstream media on crypto

Published at: Oct. 11, 2022

With crypto becoming more popular, mainstream outlets must get more educated on the space to ensure accurate reporting, according to a panel discussion during the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) Global event held at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

At the TDeFi Pavillion, Cointelegraph’s editor-in-chief Kristina Cornèr participated in a panel discussion titled “Crypto and Media: The View, The Perspective and Chaos.” Moderated by Maria Vovchok, ambassador at Blockchain Association of Ukraine and Finoverse, the panel included Laura Inamedinova, the founder of LKI Consulting; Triska Hamid, editorial director at Wamda; and Walid Abou Zaki, the founder of Unlock Blockchain.

While the discussion brought up various points, one of the highlights of the panel was the question of how mainstream media could be more accurate and knowledgeable when tackling crypto-related reports. In response to the topic brought up by Vovchok, Hamid highlighted that there are definitely problems in terms of understanding the sector from mainstream outlets. Hamid explained that:

“We saw the last recession, financial journalists were struggling to understand problems that were happening and relaying that back to the masses. So, I think there's a lack of understanding genuinely.”

Coming up with a potential solution, Abou Zaki suggested that it would be better to create new editors and journalists instead of transferring mainstream media correspondents into crypto. The executive proceeded to tell his experience with an editor he knew who just totally gave up on trying to understand the space when things started to get complex. “From what I see in this market, I believe the mainstream media and the editors in the space don't invest enough time to learn about this technology and this space,” he said.

Meanwhile, Inamedinova pointed out that while crypto-focused media may be focused on quality, some of the mainstream media outlets are focused on getting clicks and therefore publishing headlines that are clickbait to get more traffic. According to the agency executive, some outlets only focus on the traffic and not on the quality. She explained that:

“It's all about the quality, and you don't want to lose your reputation. But for certain media outlets, not definitely not those who are sitting on the panel, it's all about the traffic.”

Commenting on the topic of headlines, Cornèr explained that when writing articles, one of the considerations is search engine optimization (SEO). The Cointelegraph editor-in-chief explained that covering news is a mix of trying to be faithful to the concept and trying to get indexed by Google and other search engines.

She agreed that mainstream media sometimes prioritizes SEO-friendly headlines over accurate headlines, but when it comes to crypto-focused media, a balance must be reached. “We can't allow ourselves because we are here to promote real education for the community. And this is a big problem, I think,” she said.