> people who used to gossip to a small audience down the pub now have equal platforms to newspapers.
I'd say they have a bigger audience than newspapers. "Gossip" and "fake news" have higher engagement rates than boring real news, and thus are more likely to show up in the news feed on social advertisement platforms.
And worth noting that major news orgs caught onto this in the 90s. News these days is essentially entertainment. I think as people we are responsible for this, we ask for this stuff and approve of by consuming it. We are most certainly authors of our own demise but for some reason we think this is 'happening' to us.
I'd say they have a bigger audience than newspapers. "Gossip" and "fake news" have higher engagement rates than boring real news, and thus are more likely to show up in the news feed on social advertisement platforms.