In general the signal to noise ratio is unbelievable. I've been reading up a bit on positive psychology and even the various meta analysis performed don't agree with each other and it's just...what have we done to ourselves where we've obscured communication and underlying data to the point where people who aren't total laypeople can't even figure out what's going on...
Like any other long-running conflict between two groups (in this case, the elite and everyone else), the problem is one of each side trying to get an edge on the other. The Internet and mass communication as a whole is just another tool. Leaders have known for a long time how dangerous the press can be, but haven't really been able to get the upper hand until now as the tools have gotten more sophisticated (which comes in part to being able to tap into human nature, whereby we're wired to want an echo chamber).