Journalism, democracy, truth, Musk, Twitter

From the start of the Enlightenment to Musk's populist Twitter

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📝 On weekends I will send you some quick thoughts on media and (this) journalism, if there is anything relevant to say. I’m writing the Sunday column for a bit later on today for you. I will try to organise life to get them to you on Sunday mornings as I get better at Substack. I asked one reader who invested in a new paid subscription this week why she had done so—the more I can focus things for everyone, the better —and her reply was:

“I started following you during the Covid pandemic. I liked what you were publishing and I remember you had to buy a computer and it was all chaos. Look, good journalism is fundamental to stop democratic values from being perverted, but you need financing. That is why I support you”.

Apart from “great, thank you very much”, I thought I agreed with that very long-term view on democracy and journalism. I have certainly reached that conclusion over the past few years. Journalism is inseperable from modern democracy. It is a part of our post-Enlightenment, more reasoned, scientific, logical world and is oriented towards truth, facts and reality. There was no critical journalism in the Age of Absolutism. Authoritarian regimes today threaten, repress, harass and even sometimes physically exterminate journalists. Populist politicians frame the media as their enemy.

The MAGA/Brexit/Vox crowds show more enthusiasm for lesser established facts, conspiracy and aggressive tribal beliefs. Ideological traits—in one direction or another, whatever you personally agree with—are then observable in media ownership and even platform or format choices. Whether he knows it or not, Musk is tending towards that side of the spectrum after buying Twitter. In his first week as the new big boss, he has gone beyond rebalancing the overly-ideological account suspension process many complained of and has himself tweeted out a conspiracy theory before then firing the whole human rights team and saying things like “⚡⚡⚡ Power to the People ⚡⚡⚡”. Resuscitating Vine for quick emotional videos, turning blue-tick verification into a paid status symbol and letting Trump back on would all take us further down that particular path.

Substack is not Twitter, it has a different dynamic, but it could certainly be our place for more reasoned thought and debate in that environment, as we go into very polarised election cycles in 2023 and 2024 in different countries. Thank you for reading and for subscribing, wherever you are in the world.

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