Hey everyone, as promised, here is my full keynote speech from yesterday. On a personal note, thank you. Thank you for allowing me to have this platform and to do this job full-time. Because of you, I have the best job in the world. Please consider subscribing to keep my work going:
Here is the full text of my speech:
Good morning,
My job today is to convince all of you to become TikTokers.
All jokes aside, it is an honor to be here — standing among so many reporters, editors, producers, photographers, and hopefully, future TikTokers.
I know most of you don’t do this work for the money, or the credit, or the clicks. You do it because journalism, at its core, is a public service. A calling. A commitment to holding the powerful accountable and making sure your neighbors — especially the most vulnerable — are seen, heard, and understood.
That mission hasn’t changed.
But how we do it — that has changed drastically. And permanently.
We are standing at the edge of a massive transformation. One that’s already reshaping what journalism looks like, how it’s distributed, who it’s for, and — maybe most importantly — who gets to do it.
And we owe much of that transformation — for better and worse — to social media.
Now, I want to start by telling you a story.
My story.
I got my start on social media in February of 2022. I wasn’t a reporter. I wasn’t an anchor. I wasn’t a journalist — at least not in any formal sense.
I was a fledgling lawyer. Just two years out of law school. But I had family in Kyiv, Ukraine. And as the world watched the slow build-up to war — I was hearing something very different than what I saw on the news.
My relatives would call and tell me what they were seeing — tanks lining up, air raid sirens echoing, fear setting in. What I saw in American media was a delay — a vacuum — where urgent, on-the-ground truth should’ve been. There was a disconnect between what I was hearing from family in real-time, and what was making it onto our screens.
So I did the only thing I could think to do:
I pulled out my phone. I went on social media. And I started sharing what I was hearing.
No plan. No approval. No production team. Just a phone and a need to speak the truth.
That’s how it began — just one person, sharing one story.
And within one week, I had gained a million followers. A million people who were hungry to understand what was happening — to cut through the noise and the spin, and to hear from someone who had a direct line to the ground.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was the beginning of my journalism career.
And since then, through that same phone, that same instinct, and that same refusal to wait for permission — my reporting has reached over 180 million unique Americans, generated more than 2.5 billion impressions, and built a loyal and growing community of over 6 million followers across platforms.
Not through a newsroom. Not through a network.
But through direct connection. Through consistency. Through showing up, again and again, for the stories that matter.
I’m telling you this not to talk about myself — but to make something very clear:
Social media didn’t kill journalism. It gave it back to the people.
It stripped away the gatekeepers. It leveled the playing field. It allowed anyone — including the people in this room — to share the truth without waiting for a booking, a byline, or an editor’s green light.
And that’s something traditional media wasn’t prepared for.
The old model was built on scarcity — limited airtime, limited column inches, limited voices.
Social media upended that. It created a system based not on scarcity, but on proximity, authenticity, and immediacy.
Let’s not forget: this isn’t the first technological shift to disrupt our field.
People once said radio would ruin newspapers. Then television would kill radio. Then the internet would destroy them all.
Each time, journalism adapted. Not perfectly. Not without losses. But it evolved.
Social media is the next evolution. And yes, it’s messy.
But it’s also one of the most democratizing forces journalism has ever seen.
Because here’s what we need to remember: The mission hasn’t changed.
A print journalist tells a story with words.
A photojournalist tells it with light.
A radio host tells it with voice.
A TikTok reporter tells it with 60 seconds and a phone.
Different mediums. Same mission. Same soul.
We are all content creators. The only difference is the container. The only shift is the syntax.
And today, more and more people are turning to new containers.
According to Pew Research, more than half of U.S. adults — 54% — now get news from social media at least sometimes, with younger adults leaning on it even more heavily.
Facebook and YouTube still lead, but TikTok has exploded — from just 3% in 2020 to 17% in 2024. And among TikTok users, over half — 52% — say they regularly get news on the platform.
These are not fringe audiences. These are not “the kids.” These are the public.
And they are forming their understanding of the world through short videos, tweets, DMs, and livestreams.
And influencers — yes, news influencers — are stepping into that space.
Pew analyzed over 150,000 posts from 500 of these influencers in the run-up to the 2024 election. Nearly all of them mentioned Trump and Harris, but twice as many posts were about Trump — largely because right-leaning influencers posted far more frequently than their left-leaning counterparts.
This wasn’t just noise — this was reach. This was persuasion.
This was the digital architecture of influence — and it’s shaping our elections in real time.
On X (formerly Twitter) — where nearly 80% of all candidate-related posts appeared — right-leaning influencers accounted for nearly half of all content.
Meanwhile, TikTok had the highest share of posts from left-leaning influencers, who were far more critical of Trump.
It’s not just a matter of who speaks. It’s who speaks more, and where.
And how often. And how effectively.
Because partisanship isn’t just shaping political narratives — it’s shaping the news itself.
And the battleground isn’t just ideological. It’s algorithmic.
Different platforms draw different demographics:
Women dominate on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Nextdoor.
Men dominate on Reddit, X, Rumble, and YouTube.
TikTok and Instagram skew younger. LinkedIn skews more educated.
Truth Social and Rumble? Almost exclusively Republican.
Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram? More likely to be Democratic.
So if we want to meet the public where they are — we need to know where they actually are.
This is a strategic responsibility, not a stylistic choice.
Because here’s the truth no one in corporate media wants to admit:
The public doesn’t trust institutions anymore.
They trust people.
Not press releases. Not polished anchors. People.
People who show their face.
Who post in real-time.
Who answer questions.
Who cite sources.
Who admit when they’re wrong.
Who earn trust not through brand reputation, but through presence and transparency.
That’s the power of independent journalism.
And it’s the power of local journalism too.
Because while national outlets chase clicks, local journalists are chasing context.
You know the history of your communities. You know who’s missing from the table. You know what’s hiding in the fine print.
Now imagine combining that knowledge with platform.
Imagine harnessing social media not just to break stories, but to build movements.
To teach. To document. To expose. To empower.
That’s what this moment is calling for.
That’s where journalism is going — and you’re already equipped for it.
But let me be real — this isn’t all upside.
Social media journalism comes with pressure:
To always be on.
To build, edit, shoot, and post — all at once.
To handle harassment, misinformation, content moderation, and burnout — without an HR department, without legal counsel, and often, without pay.
It is relentless.
It is exhausting.
And it is absolutely worth it.
Because in a time when authoritarianism is rising…
When corporate consolidation is gutting local newsrooms…
When public institutions are being manipulated and undermined…
Journalism is not just important. It is essential infrastructure for democracy.
And we have to be honest about the threat we’re facing.
A second Trump administration hasn’t been just a policy shift.
It is a direct threat to journalism — especially to independent and social-first journalists.
We’ve already seen the warning signs:
— Reporters ejected from briefings.
— The press labeled the “enemy of the people.”
— A president openly encouraging violence against protestors and dismissing dissent as disloyalty.
Let’s be clear:
Independent journalists, TikTok reporters, Substack writers, livestreamers, and yes — even local newspaper editors — are targets.
Because we are visible.
Because we are unfiltered.
Because we are uncontrollable.
And when governments can’t control the message, they come after the messengers.
We must be prepared for that. And we must be united in resisting it.
Because if we don’t protect one another — if we let independent media be scapegoated, if we let local reporters be picked off one by one — there may be no one left to speak when it’s your turn.
This is not hyperbole.
This is history repeating itself — and we know how it ends when the press is silenced.
So yes — we are facing enormous challenges.
But we are also standing in the middle of a revolution.
If the traditional model can’t sustain journalism, then we have to build something better.
More direct.
More transparent.
More accountable to the people, and less beholden to the powerful.
That’s what independent media is doing.
That’s what social-powered journalism is enabling.
And that’s what you — as local reporters — are uniquely positioned to lead.
But I want to add one more thing — something that’s not talked about enough.
Local journalists and social media journalists are not competitors. We are allies.
You bring institutional knowledge. You bring deep roots, context, relationships, and lived expertise.
We — the digital-first, the mobile-native — bring reach, agility, and audience infrastructure.
When we work together, the public wins.
Because you know what’s happening in city council meetings, in school board elections, in courtrooms and classrooms that national reporters and TikTokers will never step foot in.
And we — the social-first — know how to amplify those stories. How to translate them into formats that break through the noise. How to distribute them to people who don’t subscribe to a paper, but desperately need the information you’re uncovering.
This is not a zero-sum game.
It’s a symbiotic relationship — one that, if we embrace it, could redefine journalism as a more collaborative, community-rooted, and far-reaching force for truth.
We need more local reporters on TikTok.
We need more social media journalists citing local investigations.
We need to uplift each other’s work, co-report, co-publish, tag, stitch, and share.
Because the more we cooperate, the more informed this country becomes.
And the more informed Americans are — the more empowered they are. To vote. To organize. To protect their rights. To hold the powerful accountable.
This is not about platforms. This is about people.
And together, we can build an ecosystem of journalism that isn’t bound by format, but united by mission.
So I challenge you:
Find a content creator in your state. DM a local reporter on Instagram. Collaborate on a story.
The future of journalism doesn’t belong to one camp or the other.
It belongs to all of us — if we’re willing to work together.
You don’t need to change who you are.
You just need to bring who you are to platforms where people already are.
Because you already are content creators.
You always have been.
Now it’s just about choosing the format that reaches the people you serve.
Post the story.
Share the receipts.
Go live.
Make a reel.
Start a thread.
Record a voice memo.
Take your truth out of the column and into the conversation.
And don’t let anyone tell you that isn’t journalism.
If it documents.
If it informs.
If it holds power to account — it is journalism.
Whether it’s in a broadsheet or a Substack, a TikTok or a town hall, a press release or a podcast — if it’s real, it matters.
This is not the end of journalism.
This is the beginning of its most participatory, public, and powerful era yet.
So let’s meet the moment.
Let’s meet the people where they are.
And let’s rebuild journalism — not from the top down, but from the ground up.
Thank you.
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