The problem with "independent journalism" is the loss of a shared coherent narrative about the world. There's just no shared context. Many don't even watch/read

The problem with "independent journalism" is the loss of a shared coherent narrative about the world. There's just no shared context. Many don't even watch/read the news anymore. Earlier this year I introduced my grandma to YouTube, but I was surprised how fast she got hooked and stopped watching conventional news altogether, so much so that she hadn't even heard of the George Floyd protests. Whereas previously I used to talk with my grandma about stuff on the news, that stopped after she started watching YouTube, because her channel subscriptions do not intersect with mine, so we have nothing in common to talk about. It's a sort of regression to pre-modern tribalism where only "local" events matter to you -- except "local" means whatever independent content creators you are subscribed to, and their respective tribes. While this was always the case for much of the developing and pre-modern world, this is a new state of affairs for the West. The educated Western public is now regressing to a state of ignorance about global affairs to the extent that they have no idea what "global affairs" even means, all the while believing that they have a "better" worldview due to their "woke" independent analysis. The real problem is the loss of a shared context and common knowledge with which to engage in conversation with people around you.