Olivia Goodman

At the end of this week, the 20th of January, Trump will be inaugurated as the President of the United States. But I’m going to take you further back – even before 6th November. Yes, the memes, edits, algorithms, podcast episodes, and posts are different now. Let’s go back to the summer of brat, presidential debates, the 34 felonies, Biden dropping out, two assassination attempts, and ‘childless cat ladies’. 

Last November, I attended the Community Radio Awards in Cardiff – journalism, the media, and communication were all pressing topics. The person to my left leant over, and said: ‘You see, I’ve moved over to BlueSky now. I feel my X days are over, and it’s all changing now, it’s all changing.’ To keep the conversation polite, I nodded, smiled and tried to disguise my confusion. There was a new kid on the social media block. I internally sighed and thought (queue Brenda from Bristol in 2017), not another one. Instagram threads, BeReal, Truth Social, the list goes on. I may be eighteen years old and glued to my phone, but the pace at which our media landscape changes is exhausting. 

I inevitably fell down an inevitable BlueSky rabbit hole. The FT reported that: ‘since election day, app usage of Bluesky in the US and UK skyrocketed by almost 300% to 3.5mn daily users.’¹ The once-considered breaking news hub, X (formerly known as Twitter), has seen a seismic departure of users. And journalists are among them, too. The Guardian came out with a statement saying that they would no longer post on X. The organisation said: ‘The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.’²My thoughts diverted. US Election. Misinformation. Campaign Trail. Voting Behaviour. How could I have forgotten what occurred in the lead-up to 5th November 2024? 

I sat there and began listing everything I had seen throughout the campaign. To name a few: Harris is a brat, Trump is on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Maya Rudolph as Harris on SNL, and Jeremy Strong is Trump in The Apprentice. Something felt different this time – why has internet culture changed?  

When Donald Trump declared victory in the 2024 election, many stood at his side to thank his supporters and voters throughout the campaign. To some degree of surprise, Dana White, one of Trump’s closest allies, said: ‘I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With The Boys, and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan.’³ This quote seems like it should have come from an SNL skit, but post-election, it’s clear that social media alongside politics is just the norm. The focus has shifted to the success of the Right’s media strategy, and this year, it is being hailed as ‘the social media election’. ⁴ What went so wrong for the Left? 

Post-election result, James Marriott reflected on the decline of Left cultural hegemony in The Times. He outlined the shift in pop culture from old media (associated with the Left) to new medias like podcasting and YouTube dominated by the Right.⁵ This speaks to the problems facing journalism, as the industry needs to adapt to audiences’ changing news consumption or face irrelevance. This is not news: Georgie Greig, editor of The Independent, highlighted the relevance of ‘short-form video’, and meeting ‘audiences where they are.’⁶ Distrust is omnipresent, and this paranoia was harnessed during the election.  Sarakshi Rai, director of audience and social media at The Hill, argued for the need for nonpartisan media so readers across political spectra could trust there wasn’t an ‘underlying agenda’ to their coverage.⁷

America may be divided by social media platforms, but voters should have access to non-partisan journalism that provides them with the tools they need to make informed decisions. Journalism faces many challenges, such as adapting to digitalisation, disinformation, and demands from the different divisions on the political spectrum, to name a few. And, of course, journalistic integrity is not always guaranteed, and sometimes, we get it wrong. But public trust in the media is imperative now more than ever. So, how do we achieve regaining public trust? We go back to basics: active listening and open communication. We must take responsibility as journalists, as politicians and people in positions of power and as the public, regardless of where you sit, may it be left or right. 

The modern electorate and journalism industry must navigate the cloudy waters of the online world, where echo chambers and algorithms shape public perception in this age of misinformation and disinformation. People need a form of open and fair media that meets contemporary desires for speed and technology. Recent electoral trends have shown the dangers of post-truth news, and to address the lack of trust in mainstream media, we must prioritise accountability, honesty, and transparency on both sides of the political spectrum.

1. John Burn-Murdoch and Hannah Murphy, ‘Meta loses ground to Bluesky as users abandon Elon Musk’s X’, Financial Times, 23 November 2024. [Accessed: 21/11/24]
   URL:https://www.ft.com/content/e1b52147-c171-4902-8bce-204ba0905912 
   ↩︎
2. ‘Why the Guardian is no longer posting on X’, The Guardian, 13 November 2024. [Accessed: 21/11/24]  URL: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/13/why-the-guardian-is-no-longer-posting-on-x  ↩︎
3. ‘Dana White thanks “the mighty and powerful” Joe Rogan for throwing 2024 US election to Trump’, Global News, Youtube, 6 November 2024. [Accessed:  21/11/24]  URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuKKDfPV5nY ↩︎
4. ‘A Look at Social Media’s Role in the US Election’, CBS News, 19 November 2024. [Accessed: 23/11/24]  URL: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/a-look-at-social-medias-role-in-the-2024-election/  ↩︎
5. James Marriott, ‘Right-wing pop culture is top of the charts’, The Times, 11 November 2024. [Accessed: 23/11/24]  URL: https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/right-wing-pop-culture-academics-logal-paul-wlrfczp29  ↩︎
6. Charlotte Tobitt and Bron Maher, ‘Polls, trust and video shorts: Lessons for news publishers from US election’, Press Gazette, 18 November 2024. [Accessed: 25/11/24 ]  URL: https://pressgazette.co.uk/north-america/us-election-media-reflections-trump-harris/  ↩︎
7. Ibid ↩︎

Image credit: Cox, A. (1973) Chief Justice John Marshall administering the oath of office to Andrew Jackson on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol, March 4
. Washington D.C, 1973. [or 1974] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/00650363/.