Watch my panel discussion on Twitter's decline and fall
Some quick thoughts on traveling to Italy for the International Journalism Festival.
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I spent Sunday making the long trek back to Minnesota from Rome, so for today’s newsletter I wanted to share the reason I journeyed to Italy in the first place: my panel discussion at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia about Twitter’s decline and fall under Elon Musk’s erratic right-wing stewardship.
The talk was titled, “X and journalists: should I stay or should I go?” It was moderated by Phil Chetwynd, the big boss at Agence France-Presse, and I was joined on stage by two of the foremost experts on the fraught social media landscape — Zoe Schiffer, managing editor of Platformer and author of the highly recommended book “Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk’s Twitter,” and Marianna Spring, disinformation and social media correspondent for the BBC.
You can watch our full discussion below. But if you’re curious, my basic take on the “stay or go” question is this: Even in its degraded form, the platform formerly known as Twitter remains an important tool for newsgathering and audience building. So while Musk’s antics (including at one point banning me) certainly are an ongoing impetus for journalists to develop a presence on alternative platforms, I don’t plan to stop tweeting or deactivate my account anytime soon — especially when the other options on offer (like Threads and Bluesky) have issues of their own.
Have something to say about the panel discussion? Do you think I should delete my X account immediately and never let back? Let’s hear it. Sound off in the comments.
Aside from the conference, it was a pleasure to spend time in Perugia, an incredibly beautiful city with historic buildings and structures built right into a rugged hilltop landscape. You can check out some of the pictures I took below.
And before I took the train up to Umbria for the conference, I spent a couple days bumming around Rome, seeing the sights, and doing my best to blend in (though my jorts gave away the game).
In fact, I ate so many delicious Italian dishes that by the time I was gearing up to travel back home, the unthinkable happened — I realized I was somewhat sick of pasta.
All in all, it was a lovely trip and an honor to be invited to share my perspective with such a fantastic group of journalists. As I type this over a Heineken in the Amsterdam airport on Sunday afternoon (there’s no direct flight between MSP and Rome, unfortunately), I’m looking forward to getting home and giving huge to my wife and kiddos — this was the longest I’ve been away from them — and trying to get some rest. With the Trump trial starting last Monday, it was a hell of a week to be away, but I’m proud of the work we published in the newsletter while I was traveling (see, for instance, my interview with Simon Rosenberg below). I look forward to getting back in the saddle this week.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank you, my dear readers. Without you, Public Notice isn’t possible. This newsletter has grown beyond my expectations since I launched it in October 2021 and, as Kimberly Guilfoyle once reminded us, the best is yet to come.
So thank you for making Public Notice a success. Going independent is truly one of the best career decisions I’ve made and being featured at the International Journalism Festival (and getting a trip to Italy out of it to boot) is icing on an already really enjoyable cake. Cheers.
That’s it for today
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I got a Twitter account a few years ago so that I could get breaking news, access to cable news clips (I don't have cable, only streaming accounts), and access to magazine, journal and newspaper articles. I've stayed although I've had to mute quite a few accounts to have some piece of mind. And, I think Musk is a terrible business person and I don't like him personally. But, I'd say stay on Twitter. It's important to be able to read accurate news that I have faith in and I love the fact that you listen to the rally's so I don't have to. I cannot listen to Trump since when he speaks it's all chaos and reminds me of fingernails on a chalkboard.
I'm a fan of any article quoting Kimberly Guilfoyle.