The Information Warfare Era

Key takeaways

The flow of information to the public undergirds government legitimacy

American politics has evolved with the advancement of communication technologies, from the newspaper, to radio, to TV, to social media

The disruption of the news industry business model by internet firms has resulted in a mass extinction of local newspapers and the rise of winner-take-all prestige news organizations

America’s information environment today is characterized by dueling liberal and conservative news ecosystems

These “Two Americas” are incompatible with our republican form of government

More, new local journalism is the way to shatter media polarization

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Originally published: March 14, 2023

Updated: November 10, 2024

During the Cold War, the US and its allies beamed Radio Free Europe into the Soviet Union. The station was US government propaganda intended to counter Soviet propaganda and erode Moscow’s grip over its citizens. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Radio Free Europe was not the cause but it helped prepare conditions for the Soviet collapse.

This example illustrates how critical information is to legitimizing a government. Information supremacy is not only applicable to democracies, in which citizens transform information into decisions at the ballot box, but for autocracies as well, which must have at least some popular support to remain in power. The US is an open system where the government mostly stays out of media and the First Amendment guarantees that anyone can say whatever they want. Given the importance of communication to politics and governing, changes in communications technology have the potential to transform politics. The Digital Revolution is having just such an effect on US and global politics today.

History of Information Technology in Politics 

The essence of politics is telling a “story” and getting as many people as possible to buy into that “story”. The medium for telling stories has changed over time as technology has changed. In America, newspapers historically shared one parties story, often denoted in their name by adding “-Democrat” or “-Republican”. Descendants today include the “The Natchez Democrat” of Natchez, Mississippi and “The Republican” of Springfield, Massachusetts. These broadsheets used to share the political story of the party in their name.

The rise of the medium of radio was another technology harnessed by American political parties. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, elected four times as US President, was particularly adept at leveraging this medium with his “fireside chats”. The 1960 debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy introduced the nation to television. Those who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon won, while those watching on TV thought JFK won. More recently, Donald Trump won the 2016 US Presidential election by using new social media technology, then called Twitter. In the aftermath of the disputed 2020 election, communications technology took center-stage as the sitting US president was banned from Twitter. This led Trump to form his own social media platform, which alongside podcasts and other new digital media, helped Trump win the 2024 election.

The Death of the Newspaper

The original business model for newspapers was to sell advertising. This source of revenue subsidized the news reporting business. Then in the 1990s and 2000s new giant internet businesses emerged, which were far more effective at advertising. Advertisers switched their ads from print to digital and newspapers died in mass. From 2005 to 2021, about 2,200 American local print newspapers closed.[i]

The disruption to the newspaper business model wasn’t fatal for all newspapers. Major newspapers, such as the New York Times, switched their model to an online subscription model and have grown considerably.

But there was a problem: the incentives for running a subscription model cause the editor to give the audience what it wants, not necessarily objective reporting. Subscribers don’t like reading news they don’t agree with or runs counter to their worldview. 91% of New York Times readers identify as “Democrat”, according to the Pew Research Center[ii]. This has created the incentive to publish partisan content, which opponents often label “fake news”. 

This phenomenon is in no way limited to the political Left. Fox News pioneered the demographic-based subscription business model on the Right with great commercial success starting in the 1990s.

Information Warfare Era

Today’s information environment in America is characterized by dueling liberal and conservative news ecosystems. To survive, all major corporate newspapers and cable networks have moved to this model. The sorting of Americans into each bubble has been exacerbated by algorithms and social media echo chambers. Don’t like an opinion? Just block or unfollow it. Americans are beginning to catch onto this, with trust in national news organizations declining across all age groups while younger adults trust information from social media almost as much as from national news outlets.

 Two Americas

In college, I took an English class on Science Fiction. We learned that the definition of science fiction is “to imagine how a society reacts to a technological innovation”. Think of warp speed in Star Trek or the bioengineered replicants in Blade Runner. In dystopian 2020s America, that technological innovation is the information bubbles we inhabit.

There are Two Americas, one Democratic and one Republican, each with their own facts and worldviews. Increasingly, dialogue and empathy between the groups are limited. Hatred between the two groups is on the rise. Voters are increasingly set in their political views and refuse to budge. 

Benjamin Franklin is said to have once responded to an inquiry about the model of American government after the Constitution was drafted. “What type of government will we have, a monarchy or republic?” a citizen asked. “A Republic, if you can keep it” he responded. The Two Americas are a threat to that Republic.

Local journalism

The way to combat the sorting of American journalism into partisan silos is by expanding local journalism. New, bottom-up information ecosystems are the way to topple existing top-down models. The consolidation of news corporations into large, profit-driven entities has made the news into entertainment, not objective truth-telling. The decentralization of news into citizen journalism on X/Twitter, Substack, and podcasts will make it much harder for any faction to shape news “narratives” and are democratizing forces that will only expand in the coming years. AI, new business models, and fresh news organizations are going to shatter media consolidation. This pro-democratic disruption should excite everyone.

The transformation of America’s information landscape has profound implications for the nation’s political health and unity. From the rise of digital platforms to the collapse of traditional newspapers, communication technology has reshaped how citizens receive and process information. In this Information Warfare Era, Americans increasingly occupy polarized media bubbles that reinforce ideological divides, eroding trust in shared institutions and in each other. While local journalism and decentralized news models offer hope to break through partisan echo chambers, the challenge remains to sustain a republic grounded in common truths. The stakes are high, but so is the potential for a new, more resilient information ecosystem.

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_newspapers

[ii] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/01/americans-main-sources-for-political-news-vary-by-party-and-age/