Illustration by Layer Ø Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Within minutes of Charlie Kirk being shot, millions of Americans began scrambling for information. But as the public struggled to make sense of the event, media organizations were flailing too. The Wall Street Journal misinterpreted engravings on the bullets, an anchor compared social media to a cult, and some old school journalists seemed to struggle with the basic concept of a Discord server. "The fact that there is no one in traditional media whatsoever who has any inclination to what the modern landscape of the internet is and how to navigate it is baffling at best and downright dangerous at worst," one X user posted, amassing over 10,000 likes. Related Stories TV FCC Chair Threatens Jimmy Kimmel Over Charlie Kirk Monologue Comments TV ABC News' Matt Gutman Issues Apology After Calling Charlie Kirk Shooting Suspect's Texts "Touching" Traditional news media's struggle to understand the internet or grasp new technology isn't a new phenomenon. Tim Miller, a political strategist and writer-at-large for The Bulwark, an anti-Trump new media brand on Substack, compared struggling media figures attempting to decode the shooter's internet slang to "Bryant Gumbel in 1994 trying to explain the world wide web on the Today Show." In 2025, there are more reporters covering The Los Angeles Lakers than there are dedicated online culture journalists in all of mainstream media. This vacuum left by the traditional media on internet culture coverage has allowed influencers, TikTokers, and streamers to step in and provide the tsunami of information that people crave. But that information is often unverified and many influencers don't adhere to any journalistic or ethical standards. Just last month, a WIRED investigation revealed that dozens of liberal news content creators, several identifying as independent journalists, were taking part in a dark money political influence scheme without any disclosure to the public. Meanwhile right wing content creators are building massive media empires weaponizing pop culture news for political purposes with little to no scrutiny. The disinformation pushed by these types of influencers confuses audiences, leaves them less informed, and erodes trust in actual journalism. The internet is the most powerful political tool of our time, but most media organizations treat it as an afterthought until breaking news arises. "Too many media outlets don't employ reporters who truly live online and have a firm grasp of internet culture," said Oliver Darcy, a long time media reporter and founder of Status, a newsletter about the media. The journalists getting things wrong, Darcy explains, don't have nefarious intentions. They're often just general assignment reporters thrown onto stories that they're unqualified to report on. This is how we have ended up with so many false reports of things like non-existent TikTok challenges. "Just like a news organization would not send a general reporter into a war zone, outlets should also not send untrained journalists into the chaotic online world and expect them to be able to have a complete understanding of what is transpiring," Darcy said. Ryan Broderick, founder of the newsletter Garbage Day and one of the first ever internet culture reporters, said that it didn't have to be this way. Throughout the 2010s, digital media companies employed dozens of journalists covering various online communities and phenomena. Much of their coverage, however, wasn't innately valued outside of its ability to generate traffic by going viral on platforms like Facebook. Once digital media crumbled and outlets like BuzzFeed, Mic, Vice, and others shuttered their news teams, online culture reporting as a beat was gutted. Some internet culture writers ended up in traditional media. Ali Breland and Charlie Warzel, two top journalists who have reported on the darkest and most obscure corners of the internet, landed at The Atlantic. Aric Toler, who previously worked at the investigative outlet Bellingcat and has extensive experience plunging the depths of the internet, went to The New York Times. Many others simply quit the business or became content creators themselves. Gender-based attacks also eroded the internet culture beat. In the 2010s, much of internet culture journalism was done by women. In 2025, many have been driven out of the industry by declining opportunities or a relentless torrent of abuse and blowback from the subjects they cover. Gamergate, a misogynistic harassment campaign that began in the early 2010s, provided a blueprint for the weaponization of the internet and kick-started the careers of many of the most prominent right wing internet figures today. Legacy media organizations hired women and LGBTQ journalists to cover these inf