You are the media..only if.

"The power of media lies not in any single platform but in how individuals critically evaluate information. Being “the media” means taking responsibility to verify facts, engage with opposing views, and avoid falling prey to algorithms that prioritize engagement over truth."

-- Geoff Pilkington

This is from journalist Taylor Lorenz's latest article that highlights Elon Musk calling his megaphone empire X "New Media." She repeats the words from content creator Geoff Pilkington. To me, it's a healthy a slap to the notion that "you are the media," too. Actually, being the media (good-faith info seeking media) means you care about information. It means you have to put in work to make that information higher quality.

Stated another way: bring out lessons from English class and critically think about what you're seeing/hearing/watching. Journalistic standards are real: fact-checking, meshing sources, synthesizing, verifying the quality of a source.

To ditch the media Lorenz is pointing out means you become gullible. Trusting no one is very much like trusting everyone. You believe ideas without thinking. You trust only yourself — closed and narrow. You lean on research that's on the fringe and reinforces your worldview. You try to stay the same rather than letting information change you, like all information is bound to do. You follow rich people because they are rich — not because they care about information or what you know.

Pilkington brings up another important point: just because you can post like the media doesn't mean journalistic rigor and accountability are automatic. For those skills take more work than tap and publish.

Research Scientist Mike Caulfield calls mistrust in good-faith info a "trust compression." If you don't trust or aren't willing to believe media individuals who responsibly verify information, engage with views, have open minds, and uphold truth, you are indeed gullible. Why mistrust individuals who do the work? Who care deeply about getting the information correct? Sure, mistakes happen, but I'd take people invested in getting the information right and open to all types of sources and doing the fact-checking work over the alternative.

Musk's new media can feel like old media — trusting someone with arm chair charisma over someone with the rigor to check something out.

I'd rather trust people who care and think about information critically, and who care for the individuals they are writing about. Give me more people like that.

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User MagTaylor Lorenz