Brian Stelter is taking a hard look at how news consumers are shaping media narratives more and more often through their behavior.
The former CNN Reliable Sources host said that through social media, people are creating and consuming information and news at the same time. The two systems are intrinsically connected, he said, and the story of how someone gets their information — for example, from a TikTok creator — is just as important as the information itself.
Stelter spoke to a group of 30 journalists at Drake University as part of a free, on-the-ground Poynter workshop in Iowa ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
“The way people consume information is the story,” Stelter said. “It is part of every story. It is hard to separate the media angle from, for example, the primary race.”
Take, for example, a platform such as X, now under the leadership of polarizing billionaire and near-constant headline-maker Elon Musk. X remains a real-time “create and consume” media environment, though, many argue, it is a shell of its former self.
The Washington Post’s Joseph Menn and Marianna Sotomayor wrote, “Musk’s new policies have amplified hate speech, misinformation and extremism and have driven users and advertisers away, according to studies and surveys. Attacks on gay and transgender people and ethnic minorities have surged. Propagandists for multiple countries have purchased the new check marks, making their voices louder.”
“I’m sad about it. I met my wife on Twitter,” Stelter said, wondering aloud if people kindly and innocently “slide into each other’s DMs” anymore on the platform.
Stelter did end up buying X Premium for the ability to message sources in the reporting process. X Premium is a paid subscription that gives your X account a blue checkmark as well as prioritized rankings and direct messaging with non-mutuals. Though Stelter lamented X’s toxicity, he still sees X as a valuable reporting space, especially in the media world.
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About the larger media environment, Stelter said options for some consumers have winnowed. He mentioned upward of 10 evening newsletters he reads for the most detailed and up-to-date information of the day. (He also said he feels like “a crazy person” for having written one every night for years while at CNN.) Stelter said there is near limitless content for the information-hungry these days.
“If you are a news junkie, you’re in heaven,” Stelter said. “There are more news sites, greater variety of information than ever before.”
“How is a more casual consumer going to possibly engage with this information?” Stelter pondered to the group. “If you’re exhausted, there isn’t much.”
As a final note to reporters, Stelter said: “The challenge for the press is to figure out how to be louder than the liars. I don’t think this is taking a side.” He repeated the point on MSNBC over the weekend.
What is Stelter up to these days?
He’s hosting the weekly “Inside the Hive” podcast by Vanity Fair, he’s a consulting producer on “The Morning Show,” and he’s preparing for his book launch in November. Oh, and he’s also the Class Dad at his 6-year-old’s elementary school.
Stelter talked about moving near Bedminster, New Jersey, from Manhattan and how his neighbors and friends now represent a wider political spectrum.
The former CNN host mentioned the work of organization More in Common as a way for communities to talk calmly and positively about ideological differences across the country, and how organizations like those give him hope.
Stelter said he doesn’t want to minimize the deep ideological and cultural divide in America. He brought up how Mitt Romney pays $5,000 a day for private security to protect his family from supporters of former President Donald Trump.
“But I do try to recognize that most Trump voters, if they have to choose between Trump and Biden, they’re going to vote Trump, and they’re not radicalized,” Stelter said.
Stelter said you don’t see violence outside the courthouses where Trump has been indicted.
“The reaction to Jan. 6 has been to take it seriously as a threat against democracy,” Stelter said. “And that makes me hopeful. Makes me not despair.”
