A counter point to your assertion is that more sources are better, if they are not all saying the same thing and being controlled by the same few owners. Which in today's world, in the west, most certainly are. Many years ago the news was covered from multiple angles so even with few sources I felt I was getting more insight to the story due to different perspectives.
Honestly due to the deluge of news I feel people today are more opinionated, less informed, easier to manipulate/deceive via controlled narratives, and have way shorter attention spans. The quality of journalism is so far gone it is laughable, so having more of a bad thing doesn't make it better imho.
Thinking from 10,000 feet, the quality of the media seems bad at a time when anyone can publish contradicting accounts, with evidence, on the internet.
Do you think the old media was actually better? Or was there just no platform for dissenting voices?
If there are no dissenting voices heard, then the media seems like “the truth”.
This is exactly why authoritarian governments and religions are very concerned about counter narrative publications. They want the people to believe that the official sources are the truth.
I mean, yes, but they also love playing the "Firehose of falsehood game", and playing with 'Bullshit Asymmetry'.
The problem with reality is it's way more complex than binary, things are not black and white. If you can't have and control a single news station, then make thousands of them that take small pieces of truth and stir them in a bucket of shit. Pump countless dollars of petro money into these sources so they have extreme reach into societies. Use the latest targeting tools to pull these people into their own little reality tunnels they'll have a hard time getting out of. Watch and laugh as the nation collapses in its own civil war.
How much does a country allow foreign actors to dictate what their citizens hear?
> A counter point to your assertion is that more sources are better, if they are not all saying the same thing and being controlled by the same few owners. Which in today's world, in the west, most certainly are. Many years ago the news was covered from multiple angles so even with few sources I felt I was getting more insight to the story due to different perspectives.
I've found ground.news to be a good tool for finding different angles on stories. Sadly it only split sources based on American left/center/right which certainly is different from where I am (South/West Europe), but better than nothing.
Honestly due to the deluge of news I feel people today are more opinionated, less informed, easier to manipulate/deceive via controlled narratives, and have way shorter attention spans. The quality of journalism is so far gone it is laughable, so having more of a bad thing doesn't make it better imho.