Elon Musk has regularly posted that users on X are “the media now” (Photo by Michael M. … [+]
Elon Musk has made it very clear that he believes posts on his social media platform are as credible—and perhaps even more so—than content from traditional news outlets.
“You are the media now,” Musk posted several times in recent weeks, suggesting users on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, could replace traditional journalists.
X Continues To Mark The Spot For News
Such commentary from Musk has been driving away many reporters and even news organizations, yet, some media brands have remained on X. The reason is simple, even as Musk is hostile to the media it maintains a huge base of users.
“According to a Pew research study about 59% of X users get their news from the platform, so I would think news organizations would want to be there,” said Laura Graham, a public relations professional and faculty member at North Carolina Central University. “Some news organizations might decide they have a responsibility to counter what they perceive as misinformation – to resist, if you will, the delegitimizing of their industry. If they can demonstrate quality reporting and programming not available via other sources, they can make a case to their potential audience.”
At the same time, many mainstream media organizations not only maintain a presence but also have resumed advertising.
“No matter what media you are in, eyeballs drive your business. Just like you shouldn’t be blindly in love with any platform when things are going well, you also shouldn’t completely turn your back on platforms when they infuriate you,” said Dr. Dustin York, adjunct professor in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida
“There will always be people wanting unbiased news—legitimate news organizations need to continue showing up in feeds for those people,” added York. “In the short term, the risks outweigh the rewards for legacy media advertising on X. Instead, I would encourage legacy media to put those resources behind additional content creation that can ride a current wave in Bluesky.”
Can X Be Trusted?
Even as a majority of Americans are now relying on X as a primary source of news, it doesn’t mean the content is factual or remotely trustworthy. Misinformation and disinformation are rampant across social media, and some of the content puts the “yellow journalism” of the late 19th century to shame.
Moreover, simply declaring users to be “citizen journalists” doesn’t immediately make it so, but that seems to be the direction Musk is taking X.
“If The New York Times is ‘All the news that’s fit to print,’ and MAD magazine is ‘All the news that fits, we print,’ it seems like social media is ‘All the fits about the news.’ Confirmation bias makes people look for news that fits their beliefs, and they’re very quick to brand subjective differences as misinformation or lies,” warned Graham.
Instead of actual editors and fact-checkers, who serve as the gatekeepers, X relies on Community Notes to determine what is accurate only after something has been posted.
“A Washington Post study found that the Community Notes program was taking too long to post the results of the member’s notes, such that problematic posts were staying up long after they’d been flagged and had the requisite notes submitted,” said Graham.
X has recently made changes to the program to shorten wait times, yet, it still means that a great deal of misinformation/disinformation could be reposted. We’ve seen that happy with stories in recent months, such as claims made by the Houthi rebels in Yemen that a U.S. Navy aircraft was damaged following a missile/drone strike and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had bought Adolf Hitler’s car.
While some posts in the former case were offered as a form of satire, the posts were still cited by media in Yemen and Iran as being factual.
“There’s a saying: a lie will travel around the world before the truth has time to put its pants on,” said York. “Social media has proven even this saying is too conservative—don’t hold your breath for X to be the tip of the spear for change.”
Trusting Our Friends More Than The Media
There remains a serious lack of trust in the traditional media, and while it isn’t new, social media is making it worse.
“In-group bias and out-group homogeneity bias also come into play here,” explained Graham. “We’re wired to consider people in our in-groups to be smarter, more talented, and more skilled than those outside our groups. So we’re more likely to believe those we think are like us, and to consider their content and judgment superior.”
On the other hand, the out-group homogeneity bias has the opposite effect, where users may think that people not in their in-groups are all the same rather than thinking of them as individuals.
“This bias makes it more likely we stereotype others,” said Graham. “Back in 1710, Jonathan Swift wrote, ‘Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after.’ By the time Community Notes or other fact-checkers flag and refute a post, the damage is often done. The confirmation bias encourages people to hold on to the lies or misinformation long after it’s been debunked.”
