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Watching Jones and Ross navigate a knotty search that straddles the pitfalls of citizen journalism, the energy of hero worship and the seriousness of ethical inquiry is where “Seeking Mavis Beacon” ultimately finds its truest heart, chronicling a journey that invariably butts up against the problem of whose perspective is taking center stage.

And even if that haze has occasionally been punctured for the greater good, as when it’s been used for citizen journalism and dissident organizing against oppressive regimes, social media’s incentive structure chiefly benefits the powerful and the unscrupulous; it rewards propagandists and opportunists, hucksters and clout-chasers.

X’s owner may claim it’s a platform for “citizen journalism,” but no one can honestly say that understanding events is easier on the platform these days.

That likely pleases Musk, an antagonist of the news media who has business reasons to want on-platform “citizen journalism” rather than off-platform work by professionals who may not care for him or pay him.

Other journalism models—including nonprofits such as MinnPost, collaborative efforts such Broke in Philly and citizen journalism—have had some success in fulfilling what Lewis Friedland of the University of Wisconsin–Madison called “critical community information needs” in a chapter of the 2016 book The Communication Crisis in America, and How to Fix It.