Elon Musk’s team-up with Donald Trump is different to how media barons operated in the past. Here’s why
Elon Musk’s regular posts of strong support for president-elect Donald Trump on his social media platform X and his expected role within the new US administration present a rolling live case study on the role of social media within public and political debate.
Media owners who want to exert their influence and control the public agenda are nothing new. So what can the history of media magnates tell us about the current cosy relationship between Musk and Trump?
In 1889, French author Jules Verne wrote a short story with his son Michel called In the Year 2889, which introduced the fictional Fritz Napoleon Smith, a newspaper magnate who is so influential he can tell any politician what to do.
This portrayal anticipated the influence and control exerted by real “press barons” throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.
