Will Twitter compete with the American channel Fox News? Right-wing commentators have rallied around the bluebird platform, but the chaotic launch of Republican Ron DeSantis’ social media campaign on Wednesday bolsters the case against the service measure.
The Florida governor had chosen Twitter for his first event as a candidate for the Republican nomination: a live chat with Elon Musk, in an audio channel on the platform.
But the show, followed by several hundred thousand people, only started after 20 minutes of snippets and cuts, prompting much comment and ridicule.
“Enjoy the silence”
“A disaster. Killed the bird,” Jason Kint, head of a digital media trade association, tweeted about the Telsa boss who bought Twitter last October.
Fox News, which calmly received the Republican-elect, ran this banner ad: “Do you really want to see and hear Ron DeSantis? Turn on Fox News at 8 pm.”
For Elon Musk and moderator David Sacks, a Republican businessman, this “historic” conversation was a success. “It’s great that people can listen directly to a presidential candidate (…) in an authentic way, without a script,” the leader concluded.
radical views
His provocative stances and the return of many controversial figures had already marked a shift to the right for the platform, but now it appears to be professionalizing in conservative political content.
Tucker Carlson got the ball rolling earlier this month. This presenter of radical and sometimes conspiratorial opinions gathered an average of 3.3 million viewers in 2022 on Fox News, the best audience in the afternoon schedule of US news channels. After his departure, he launched his new program on Twitter, “the last platform in the world that allows freedom of expression.”
When you post a video on the social network, “it gets viewed 80 million times… by a younger audience,” says Andrew Selepak, a professor of media at the University of Florida. “The choice is made quickly, especially if you’re more interested in having influence than making money.”
On Tuesday, the conservative news site The Daily Wire decided to broadcast its podcasts on Twitter, including that of Matt Walsh, a commentator known for his transphobic comments.
insult the critics
According to Matt Gertz, a researcher at the NGO Media Matters, the departure of the very emblematic Tucker Carlson from the conservative channel Fox News “creates a vacuum (…) and it seems that Elon Musk is trying to supplant Rupert Murdoch and become the new news of Fox”.
The billionaire has always assured that he wants to make Twitter the “digital public square of humanity”, where freedom of expression reigns. In practice, he does not hesitate to insult critics of him and the mainstream media, to the point that some have left, such as national public radio NPR.
Twitter has been abandoned by many advertisers and its value has halved despite laying off 50-75% of employees. The boss needs a new strategy.
“It’s contradictory”
Elon Musk “exploits the model that has been so successful with talk shows on radio and on Fox News, a very profitable ecosystem formed by conservative media over the past three decades,” said Kathryn Brownell, a professor of media history. at Purdue University.
But content, “is expensive and requires credibility,” says Roy Gutterman, a professor at Syracuse University. “I would have to inject another $40 billion to create ‘Twitter News’ and make it work.”
Elon Musk recently fired Linda Yaccarino from her position as head of advertising at NBCUniversal, to run the social network.
Not to mention the risk of scaring off more moderate users, or the conversation going in circles. “History shows that social networks can die in many ways, but the fastest is boredom,” says journalist Charlie Warzel in an opinion piece in The Atlantic magazine.
Source: BFM TV
