Terry Pratchett was a news reporter before he turned writer[0], and IIRC the latter partially happened out of frustration with how little people seemed to care

Terry Pratchett was a news reporter before he turned writer[0], and IIRC the latter partially happened out of frustration with how little people seemed to care about the truth (of course, the UK tabloids have a particularly notorious reputation here). Although I may have interpreted that last part based on Neil Gaiman's memory of Pratchett as being a very angry man, in a good way[1] In that light it's not that surprising that Pratchett had good insights on how the internet would pan out: he had a very good understanding of the human side of it, and especially a good feeling for the ways in which humanity was going to disappoint him, and all of us. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/sep/12/terry-pratchett-writing-dragons-at-crumbling-castle-childrens-books https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/sep/12... [1] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/24/terry-pratchett-angry-not-jolly-neil-gaiman https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/24/terry-pratchet...