We had a shortish period of fairly excellent journalism and there are still good journalists out there. I think the danger in all this media hate is that it hurts publications that are actually doing good work. Trump and Co would love nothing better than for media institutions to fail in the pursuit of holding officials to account. In Russia, they've given up on that, now we're hearing we're in a "post truth" society. Pick the story and myth you want to believe in and defend it - it's anti-intellectual and provides the perfect breeding ground for dictatorship.
There's also some confusion about what exactly comprises the media and how to treat with information we receive - Media is an eco-system of different entities - all spanning the ideological spectrum, or suiting specific purposes - entertainment, hard news, political and non-political with accompanying op eds, pop media, satire, and *fringe*. As mainstream media ( from traditional news outlets to cable news media) struggle to remain relevant, they now have to contend with fierce competition from all these other "entitles". To compete, news corporations find a niche market and caters to that audience. Viewers and readers can be assured that they will be satisfied, their views of the world un-challenged. Networks/ blogs/ news publications have to make sure they don't lose their customers, because what keeps these "entities" alive is profit . Best way to profit is to do telemetric ( for want of a better word) tests into what viewers and readers want, headlines are sensationalised to keep us all hooked, in turn cable news networks prioritizes the stories they know will tap into the fears and biases of their audience, so a profitable feedback loop is established . Unfortunately this results in a skewed version of reality, and that's the danger. Info can be manipulated to create fear, doubt and hate - nothing surprising there, but with the internet, this becomes viral.
In an era of increased demands for transparency,there's increased skepticism, and doubt about status quo narratives and doubt about our institutions. There's the sense that dissemination of information is controlled to suit moneyed interests and the "elite". Controlling how information is par for the course, and doesn't mean the way the info is framed is inaccurate, but that's certainly how many will receive it - and because of this doubt, fringe media finds its own niche market. The doubting Thomases and Janes who want "The real story" will flock to fringe sites- and of course these fringe sites also have to make money and engage in the same manipulation as main stream media occasionally.
These trends will never go away but there are things citizens can do. A lot of us just don't understand how our government works, or how decisions at the local level or even state level impact our lives. We don't get the limits or even over reach ( in some cases) of federal government or the limits of presidential power. We also don't understand power period, and those who do understand power run circles around us . We have been eliminated from the business of politics because of our own apathy, and now politics is controlled by the professionals who are all part of the media profit machine - the pundits, the surrogates, the moneyed interests and the researchers. And instead of this noise motivating us to engage with politics, we lose interest instead, don't vote or don't participate in a system that controls almost every aspect of our lives.
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