I have an opinion/theory (AS USUAL)… a long time ago there was no cable, just the alphabet networks and newspapers. A person could stay up on the local news pretty easily but had to dig for anything at the state, National or international level.
All this bad stuff was happening, most folks were unaware.
Now…if someone farts in iraq russia etc…it’s immediately news on one of the thousands news channels, blogs or the internet in general.