It depends on what you mean by the “mainstream media” What you appear to be referencing is sites like Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and other curation engines. But these sites aren’t actually doing any journalism, just repackaging stories first reported by local and national newspapers. Do these papers fall under the category of the mainstream media? I don’t agree that people seek other sources because these papers aren’t delivering quality material. I still think the Times does great work, as do the thousands of regional and local publications.

People seek out trash like HuffPost and Buzzfeed because they’re savvier at attracting our attention. If they are the mainstream media, then yes, they’re terrible. But then we should seek alternatives like respected national and local news orgs, which I would argue are also the mainstream media.

I think the bigger problem is the non-mainstream media, the blogs, clickbaiters, and curators who project false info, conspiracy theories and anything that will get us to click.