I imagine this certainty that narrative == objective truth was less common before mass-market narrative, when people had to learn about events through word of m

I imagine this certainty that narrative == objective truth was less common before mass-market narrative, when people had to learn about events through word of mouth. Hah! No this is human nature. Before the internet there was TV, and before TV there was radio, and before radio there was newspaper. Before newspaper, in Europe people would hear narratives from the Church via their priests, and at the most primitve level is gossip. If anything the internet combats this, by making available a whole array of narratives to anyone who would look for them.