Megalopolis, Elon Musk and the Importance of Citation

Last week, two news stories broke that focused on proper citation—or rather, the lack of it.

The first story involved the latest trailer for the upcoming Francis Ford Coppola movie Megalopolis. Lionsgate published the trailer, which included quotes from prominent film critics panning Coppola’s previous films, many of which are now considered classics.

However, there was a small problem. None of the critics said the quotes attributed to them. Instead, it’s unclear where the quotes came from, except one attributed to Roger Ebert that he said for another film.

Following backlash from critics and the public alike, Lionsgate pulled the trailer and apologized for the “error in our vetting process.”

Then, days later, on X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk reposted a screenshot of an article on Medium. The screenshot, initially posted by Wall Street Silver, claimed that 45% of women are estimated to be single and childless by 2030.

However, when following up on that article, Futurism discovered a fake journalist wrote the piece. The “author” was a fake name writing for an equally phony publication. The headshot was from a stock photo website.

Worse still, the article heavily plagiarized from earlier versions of the same claim, many of which date back over a year. There are so many versions of the article that it is impossible to tell which one is the original.

Both cases are a reminder of why citation is important, both for the author and the reader.

Citation for Better Writing and Reading

In 2017, I wrote an article entitled Why Cite? Three Reasons to Cite Your Sources. The idea was straightforward: Proper citation doesn’t just give credit where it is due; it improves writing.

Good citation strengthens your arguments by providing outside support and proves that you were performing due diligence when writing. While giving credit is important, citations also benefit the person doing the citing.

The two stories above are excellent examples of what happens when citations go horribly wrong.

In the case of Lionsgate, what happened is simple: They lied.

The only reason the quotes were important was that they were supposedly from well-known and well-respected critics. Remove the (false) citations, and the quotes will suddenly have no meaning.

In Musk’s case, he boosted a screenshot of a dubious article plagiarized from other dubious articles. Despite making factual claims, there’s no way to verify them. According to Futurism, the article features a lot of cherry-picking and bad-faith analysis. However, most tellingly, there’s no clear source for the article.

In both cases, attribution was falsified to give the material more credence than it deserved.

Why Readers Should Care

These are challenging times for information on the internet. Between AI-generated content, fake news websites, dubious social media posts, and actual scammers, there’s a lot of misinformation to contend with.

Many of the proposed defenses against misinformation aren’t working. A 2021 Temple study found that verified users are among the biggest fake news spreaders. Our provided guardrails aren’t working as they should.

To be clear, this isn’t a new problem. As Notre Dame professor WalterJ. As Scheirer pointed out in 2023, it is a human failing, not an internet-specific one—furthermore, concerns over the internet’s fakeness predate AI. However, recent developments have not helped things, and separating truth from fiction has become more complex.

To that end, one of the few weapons readers have against this is citations. Authors and creators are obligated to cite their sources thoroughly, and readers and viewers must check and verify them.

The Megalopolis trailer and Elon Musk’s post fell apart because people chased down those citations. While these are two significant examples that media outlets checked, millions of similar works are posted daily that need the same treatment.

Getting savvy about looking for and following up on citations may be one of the few things every user can do to protect themselves online.

Bottom Line

When discussing citation and attribution, the focus is often solely on giving credit where it’s due and not taking from others. While that is important, it’s only a part of the picture.

Citation is a core part of language. It’s how we communicate and exchange ideas. It’s also a tool for verifying information and determining whether something is trustworthy.

In both cases above, faulty information was spotted by following up on the citations provided. With the first one, the citations were the most important component of the work. In the other, an attempt was made to hide the origin of the work.

Both cases show why citations are essential for writers to include and equally crucial for readers to use. Good citation helps both the author and the reader. That is why we should frown on those who omit it.

Not just because they are failing to give credit.