Yeah, that’s been the thinking at least since Lippmann’s time.

If you only vote on local issues, you don’t need media to inform you since you can see it first hand. But as soon as the average citizen is expected to keep up with state, national, intl politics you need a media capable of informing them.

What's even more interesting is that Lippman proposed a separate entity which was meant to inform the media!

Before the printing press, you constructed your own media by hiring people to proclaim your message. "Criers" of various sorts predate democracy.

That doesn't fit the role of media in this discussion. A crucial element is their (relative) independence. Parties to an issue that have full control over the distribution of their message is what the article is holding up as the _threat_ to traditional media (ie Elon Musk's "crier" is @elonmusk).

>Democracy literally predates the printing press.

Not in any form we'd recognize as modern democracy.