Elon Musk has promised a revolution with X. With the platform as a direct mouthpiece, the media in the conventional sense no longer exists. “You are the media” is his slogan. It does not speak to sexual, ethnic, or religious minorities, but to the majority. Everyone can be a journalist. In countries such as Germany—indeed in many states—the professional title of “journalist” enjoys no legal protection.
The claim is not new. It is a development rooted in the early Trump years. Back then, traditional media attempted to play gatekeeper. From the outset they sought to corral and channel Donald Trump’s words and appearances. But even in the campaign of 2016, that method was antiquated. Throughout the election, and during his presidency, Trump made constant use of Twitter, the opinion platform that Musk would later purchase and rename.
Trump employed the very technique now encouraged among “citizen journalists”: direct communication over events, the sharing of instant analysis without a barrier. He could speak directly to Americans, bypassing Democrat-friendly broadcasters and papers. The fragility of the gatekeepers’ role was then exposed. In that light, Trump’s suspension from Twitter after Joe Biden’s inauguration was not merely a disciplinary act, but the true removal of a sitting president’s voice.
Media’s own undoing
Musk’s elevation of X into the maximal medium is therefore less an invention than a consequence. The “democratisation” of news has a single root: the mainstream press itself. Only with the collapse of trust in newspapers, radio, and television could the idea take hold that anyone with a microphone, a camera, or a commentary on politics commands the same authority as the once-revered newsreader. If the press is shown to lie, to peddle propaganda, or to parrot government opinion, counter-forces are inevitable.
