It's neither fake news nor failing media, it's the Internet itself. The Internet has created echo chambers for just about any kind of crackpots and conspiracy theorist you could find. It used to take tremendous efforts to meet fellow ufologists, and the literature was not abundant in libraries either.
Fast forward two decades and you will have a hard time finding some weird worldview that does not yet have a forum and community with ardent followers.
Human culture is to a large extent based on knowledge by testimony, and unfortunately our processing of that is fairly simplistic. The more people in your peer group believe X, the more likely you will believe X, too (as a tendency). That can become a problem when you can choose your peer group as you wish online rather than being forced to get along with the members of your tribe whether you like them or not.
And it's not just the internet itself. It's "optimization" i.e. showing people only the things that generate "engagement". That's what creates echo chambers.
Fast forward two decades and you will have a hard time finding some weird worldview that does not yet have a forum and community with ardent followers.
Human culture is to a large extent based on knowledge by testimony, and unfortunately our processing of that is fairly simplistic. The more people in your peer group believe X, the more likely you will believe X, too (as a tendency). That can become a problem when you can choose your peer group as you wish online rather than being forced to get along with the members of your tribe whether you like them or not.