From Reddit

The idea that the media has an overwhelming effect on the population in shaping their views is a popular and overstated one. Most the time it had little direct impact on the political process in tangible results, i.e. 40% of The Sun’s readership are defined as ‘strong’ Labour voters, who will vote for the party no matter what.

The idea of media narratives having an undue influence on the democratic process has been an old and ever present narrative, since the 1890s even, but it often has the tendency to see people as empty vessels being filled, rather than free agents consuming different amounts of media available to them (particularly in a modern context). And then traversing said media content.

This isn’t to discount that media often through editorial choice and direction can and often do shape the perimeters of public debate – but that relationship itself is being broken down more and more with types of ‘new’ media and ‘social’ media for younger generational cohorts.

The bogeyman of a monolithic ‘the media’ being against my set of values or beliefs and therefore it’s a conspiracy (man) deserves to be ridiculed. It’s a trope which is easily wheeled out and overblown.