In 2024, Elon Musk declared that “legacy media is dead, long live citizen journalism” — a line that captured a sentiment many now take for granted: nobody reads the newspaper anymore. Why would they, when clippable sound bites and repostable TikToks are so much easier to digest?

And yet, while traditional media has struggled to keep pace with the decentralization of today’s media landscape, the rise of user-generated content has not entirely eclipsed consumers’ underlying desire for fact-checked, structured reporting, particularly in an era when misinformation prevails. Newspapers have made digital spaces their primary home, increasingly adopting more clickbait-driven formats to keep up with today’s short-form-content-obsessed era.

In this sense, traditional media has become the dependable, less exciting, older sibling to social media. Yet it is precisely legacy media’s rigidity and steadiness, the exact qualities attributed to its “downfall,” that make it irreplaceable in the digital age.

A Digital Echo Chamber

Let’s call a spade a spade. Engagement with traditional media has undeniably plummeted. Social media, user-generated content, and influencers have, to a degree, assumed the role of town crier, shaping public discourse. Surveys suggest that 61% of US adults used social media as a news source in 2025.

Social media has replaced the one-way communication from producer to consumer with something more bilateral, reducing the public’s reliance on a handful of broadcasters and journals. Interestingly, 70% of young adults reported stumbling across political news incidentally rather than consciously searching for it themselves, suggesting that news consumption in the digital age is becoming largely driven by algorithm rather than intent.

The Rise of Mis- and Disinformation

It comes to no surprise that social media platforms, albeit enablers of public engagement, have also become vehicles for misinformation and disinformation. Academic research finds that false news on social platforms spreads significantly farther, faster, and more broadly than true news.

And people are noticing: a 2026 Reuters study finds that 62% of people globally are concerned about fake news, with the sharpest rise tied to AI-generated content.

This is especially precarious in an era when, as philosopher Martha Nussbaum has argued, education increasingly prioritizes economic productivity over critical thinking. This shift raises the risk of declining media literacy, laying the groundwork for echo chambers built on confirmation bias.

Flight to Quality

This brings us to “flight to quality.” You may recognize the financial phenomenon: when markets enter volatile periods, investors move their money into gold or other investments seen as safer.

A similar behavioral pattern surfaces amongst consumers of media in times of economic and political uncertainty, according to researchers at the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Media Responsibility. Surveys from both the early days of COVID and Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine indicate an increased consumption of news from mainstream sources, “tried and true” sources of information, as opposed to less fact-checked iffy sites and unverifiable social media posts.

A similar shift has reshaped the behaviour of younger audiences. Gen Z’s relationship to news is evolving as it becomes more difficult to discern fact from fiction online. A 2025 Raptive study found that nearly half of Gen Z actively verify information by checking trusted, credible sources, and 55% said they trust content from established experts over influencers or peer posts.

In moments of uncertainty, teens also turn to accredited, institutional sources like the Associated Press. The prevalence of misinformation across socials and the rise of AI are, in what feels like a full circle swing, ushering consumers to professional journalism in search of verification.

Consumers are growing weary of the bottomless pit of information of user-generated content, and many are eager for familiar, dependable sources to help them navigate online ambiguity and unpredictability.

Survival of the Trendiest

Legacy media has noticed. In fact, in an attempt to bridge the gap between reliable content and palatable delivery, news organizations are implementing changes to retain audiences while maintaining their verified reporting.

Beyond the obvious shift to vertical, swipeable content across the social pages of CNN, The New York Times, BBC News, and others, we are seeing a rise of personality-led journalism that emulates creator-style content. Journalists, while still employed by institutions, are producing personality-based content and connecting with audiences outside the association of their employer, even as they continue to follow the fact-checking process of their accredited institution.

The goal is to strike the ideal balance between the feel of a two-way conversation with a trusted friend and the rigor of an accredited, verified news provider.

Ultimately, the way people consume media has undeniably shifted, but that doesn’t mean one form is on its deathbed. As humans, we seek out optionality. If anything, the digital era and legacy media are positioned to work symbiotically, setting the stage for the most authentic, boots-on-the-ground information sharing of any era yet.

Sources

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reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2026/dnr-executive-summary

Forman-Katz, Naomi, et al. “Young Adults and the Future of News.” Pew Research Center, 3 Dec. 2025.
www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2025/12/03/young-adults-and-the-future-of-news/

Kenzie, Florence. “The Shift from Traditional to New Media: How Media Evolution Shapes Audience Engagement.” ResearchGate, Jan. 2025.
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Raptive. “New Gen Z Research Reveals a Shift Toward Credible, Expert-Driven Open Web Content.” Raptive, 14 Jan. 2025.
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Thomas, Laurel. “People ‘Fly to Quality’ News on Social Sites When Faced with Uncertainty.” University of Michigan News, 22 July 2020.
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Vosoughi, Soroush, et al. “The Spread of True and False News Online.” Science, vol. 359, no. 6380, 9 Mar. 2018, pp. 1146–1151.
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