I completely disagree with this premise. The internet helped to consolidate print and broadcast media into the very single channel you discuss here. Furthermor

I completely disagree with this premise. The internet helped to consolidate print and broadcast media into the very single channel you discuss here. Furthermore, the internet, and more specifically the internet’s advertising model, created perverse incentives to encourage media companies to engage with content that users were more likely to click on. Prior to this model existing, media outlets didn’t have fine-grained metrics on what kinds of content sold and what didn’t, and not having to worry about this allowed them to more freely cover broader aspects of the news. Now, everything is driven by the click and the online ad model. This is further compounded, yet again by the internet, that subscription revenue fell off a cliff and never recovered as people relied more and more on the internet for free news. A major pillar of media income evaporated a people stopped paying for news, which further drove media outlets to rely even more on the perverse advertising model I described above. The flaws of the mass media and the internet cannot be separated because their function and purpose overlap in fundamental ways.