Taylor Lorenz was right all along

Journalists are OUT, influencers are IN. That’s the chief finding from a new report by the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford, which discovered that 55 percent of TikTok and Snapchat users, and 52 percent of Instagram users, get their news from “personalities,” compared to 33-42 percent who get it from mainstream media outlets or journalists on the same platforms.

“This Reuters study once again validates what I have been saying for over a decade,” Taylor Lorenz told Cockburn, “content creators are the new media and it’s been that way for a while.” The Washington Post columnist has long banged the drum about the importance of emerging social media platforms and the importance of members of the media cultivating brands on them.

“Journalists have always been public figures, but I don’t think every journalist is an influencer (nor do they need to be!),” Lorenz explains. “It’s increasingly clear that people trust other people, not institutions. Journalists themselves can’t, and shouldn’t, rely on legacy institutions to build up their platform. They should cultivate their own platform on the internet. Not only does this help deepen readers’ trust in their work and strengthen the journalist’s relationship with their audience; it also makes their work better.”

“Influencers are responsive to communities that the legacy media has long ignored,” Lorenz, author of the forthcoming book Extremely Online, continued. “Influencers engage with the public in a way that many in traditional media refuse to.”

What does the future hold? “I’m a huge believer in legacy news institutions (I work for one!), but they’ve failed time and time again to adapt to shifting modes of news consumption,” Lorenz told Cockburn. “I sincerely hope they get their act together and evolve the way they work with journalists, because otherwise the most talented journalists of the next generation will never set foot in a newsroom; they’ll simply set up shop on YouTube or TikTok. I think that would be a loss. 

“Moving to an influencer-driven ecosystem will only make information less reliable,” Lorenz warns. “We’re increasingly getting our news from third-party influencer analysis videos, who can frame things in deeply misleading ways. That said, as long as traditional media refuses to take accountability for the misinformation and disinformation they themselves haver pushed, the public will turn to influencers who they trust, rightly or wrongly, to try to make sense of the world.”

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Harry and Meghan deplatformed

Turns out that twenty million bucks isn’t enough to persuade Meghan and Harry to get to work. After leaving the British royal family over three years ago because of the strenuous aspects of walking through the crowds of adoring fans and popping to a school twice a month, the Sussexes decided to strike multimillion-dollar deals with streaming giants. 

But now Spotify and Archewell Audio, the production company started by Harry and Meghan, have released a joint statement saying they “agreed to part ways.”

“Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together,” the audio streaming giant and the production company said.

Why are Spotify silencing the oppressed pair? Perhaps because in the three years since that deal was agreed, Archetypes is the one and only series launched. The twelve-episode season one aimed to “investigate the labels that try to hold women back.”

It turns out that a claim to the throne isn’t enough of a draw — and Meghan and Harry no longer offer bang for the buck.

Reports of Vivek’s demise have been greatly exaggerated

Ahead of Donald Trump’s Tuesday arraignment in Miami, one of his opponents for the Republican nomination, Vivek Ramaswamy, teased an announcement. Immediately whispers began to circulate that Vivek would drop out, endorse Trump and encourage other GOP candidates to do the same.

That… didn’t happen. Instead Vivek appeared outside the courthouse and encouraged all candidates to sign a pledge promising to pardon President Trump if elected. But who was the origin of the Vivek dropout rumors? A Republican source tells Cockburn that they emerged from the same source as rumblings that Ben Carson would drop out in 2016, Byron Donalds would drop out in 2020: Never Back Down PAC’s Jeff Roe.

What could explain Roe’s alleged form for spreading hearsay about candidates of color dropping out of key electoral races? A GOP insider described Roe as “not racist.” Perhaps just an unfortunate coincidence.

From first down to First Things

It’s the crossover event of the year. Harrison Butker, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker who put last year’s Super Bowl-winning field goal through the uprights, will be joining First Things, the inter-religious magazine, for an event. Yes, you read that right. The event is titled “Magnanimity in a Polarized World” and will take place on July 10 in Kansas City.

“First Things editor R. R. Reno and Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker come from very different professional environments. Yet they are joined together by their shared Catholic faith and an earnest desire to practice their faith in an increasingly hostile and complex world,” the event description reads.

Kudos to Butker for being so bold. The kicker also wore a pro-life tie to the Biden White House earlier this month. Let’s hope his newfound outspokenness doesn’t end in a public apology à la Anthony Bass.

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