Two decades ago, the job title ”content creator” didn’t exist. Today, a thriving economy fortifies these social media personalities as they anchor YouTube shows and post to legions of fans on Instagram or X.
Charlie Kirk was one of them—a conservative
activist and Trump adviser who, after seven years of running a nonprofit, began
playing in the same podcasting sandbox as
people like Ben Shapiro on the right and the Meiselas brothers on the left.
Kirk’s assassination Wednesday has left
that high-drama ecosystem reeling.
Over the past week, prominent creators on
both sides of the political spectrum say they have been reckoning with a new
level of fear. Many are considering ratcheting up
their security, if they haven’t already. Others are recalibrating
how to safely interact with audiences in person—or whether to keep making
content in public at all.
“My security chief called me when this
happened,” Glenn Beck of The Blaze told Megyn Kelly on her YouTube broadcast on
Wednesday, adding that he had previously pressed Kirk on his level of protection.
“Too many people in our position do not take security seriously.”
Social media during the Trump era has been
defined by roiling debate between these
digital celebrities, their fans and their detractors.
Although many online personalities have received threats of violence, and have
chosen largely to brush them off, that no longer seems like an option.
“Charlie got threats all the time,” Steve
Bannon, the former White House chief strategies and host of the daily video
podcast “War Room,” said in an interview with The New York Times.
And yet Kirk was committed to the
on-the-ground ”populist thing” that people now expect of political heroes,
Bannon said.
Events have become a pillar of new media stardom, and anxiety following Kirk’s
assassination could have a tangible impact on creators’ livelihoods. For top podcasters,
torus are booming, opening up new revenue streams and reinforcing their uniquely casual and direct relationship with
fans.
Yet in this new world, creators may rethink
making themselves so accessible.
Going forward, experts anticipate that venues and their insurers will be more restrictive with political speakers, or reluctant to host them at all. On Thursday, Glen Kucera, who runs enhanced protection services for the security firm Allied Universal, said that more than 30 universities had reached out to discuss campus safety in the wake of Kirk’s shooting. (Jessica Testa, Joseph Bernstein and Callie Holtermann)
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