> we don't have to go very far back in our history until we find that all the information that reached us was relevant to us and therefore anything that happene

> we don't have to go very far back in our history until we find that all the information that reached us was relevant to us and therefore anything that happened, any news, whether it was about something that's actually happened to us, in the next house, or in the next village, within the boundary or within our horizon, it happened in our world and if we reacted to it the world reacted back Well Douglas Adams is a great writer and all that but this is a massive simplification, at least in the UK [0]. There is an extensive history of public opinion being swayed by highly politicised media, also a lot of state control on what could be said. E.g. salacious gossip about the royals. There was also a lot of graphic media - essentially political cartoons - that were very highly political and intended to inflame opinion. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_journalism_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_journalism_in_the_U...