there used to be just a few newspapers serving all the bubbles
I think that this in particular is a positive factor for quality of discourse / general intelligence, at least for large segments of the population.
Monoculture TV was trending towards 20-minute sitcom episodes, but now that we have HBO/Netflix many people choose to watch 10-hour seasons with complex stories. Radio and TV had talk shows with 5-minute interviews, now millions choose to listen to 2-hour podcasts. National magazines for nerds had to appeal to all nerds in the nation, but now I can choose to read LessWrong.
Certainly some people choose simpler and stupider. But when there was no choice, the mass media had to appeal to the common denominator—maybe not the 1st percentile of simplicity and stupidity but at most the 20th, not the 50th. This means that most people get smarter things when they have freedom to choose more niche media.
I think that this in particular is a positive factor for quality of discourse / general intelligence, at least for large segments of the population.
Monoculture TV was trending towards 20-minute sitcom episodes, but now that we have HBO/Netflix many people choose to watch 10-hour seasons with complex stories. Radio and TV had talk shows with 5-minute interviews, now millions choose to listen to 2-hour podcasts. National magazines for nerds had to appeal to all nerds in the nation, but now I can choose to read LessWrong.
Certainly some people choose simpler and stupider. But when there was no choice, the mass media had to appeal to the common denominator—maybe not the 1st percentile of simplicity and stupidity but at most the 20th, not the 50th. This means that most people get smarter things when they have freedom to choose more niche media.