Given the post-modern reality we occupy, where people can basically pick and choose their reality (read: echo chambers) and not only pick them, but entrench the

Given the post-modern reality we occupy, where people can basically pick and choose their reality (read: echo chambers) and not only pick them, but entrench themselves due to the cognitive dissonance felt if you try to exit them, I suspect you're partially correct. Never before in history have journalists had the analytics tools to carefully guide stories to virality. If it bleeds, it leads has always been true, but now journalists have the ability to not just find stories where it bleeds, but they have the analytics and the tools to massage the story such that a papercut is perceived by the reader as a mortal flesh wound. Everything is exaggerated in the pursuit of eyeballs and ad impressions. Furthermore, you can get "stuck" in a story by following hyperlinks of tangential information, and assign greater importance than you would in the past when newspapers were read top to bottom, front to back, changing subjects with each article.