Who decides what information we see? For this newsletter, of course, we provide nothing but the unvarnished truth bravely plucked from the jaws of inequality and also my boss reviews it, but not every outlet is so scrupulous. 

Media ownership in the UK is highly concentrated in the hands of oligarchs who have never made a secret of their desire to shape access to information. The ability to buy a paper or social network is a very direct way for inequality of wealth to rapidly turn into inequality of power. It shapes which voices are heard and whose interests are protected; ultimately, it shapes which policies are possible. 

During the 20th century the power of media barons was well understood and some safeguards were erected to limit unequal influence: some level of media regulation, ownership restrictions, and most importantly a public broadcaster. However, while 60% of the country gets some news from the single, highly-trusted source of the BBC, social media platforms run by tech oligarchs are now also a source of news for over half of UK adults.

The inequality of entire social platforms owned and controlled by the whims of a tiny number of very rich people has, shockingly, turned out to be corrosive to the public good. Networks like Elon Musk's Twitter will literally pay people for generating attention via false information. Facebook's insistence that it's a neutral platform and not responsible for the content on it led to Facebook being used to amplify hate and violence during the Myanmar genocide. The existing safeguards, already struggling to regulate commercial media, fail entirely online. 

That's not to say, though, that the decline in informed journalism is a organic process caused by the digital revolution affecting media. These changes are being aggressively pushed by the wealthy and powerful across all platforms. From oligarchs buying papers and firing their staff to political or financial pressure being put on media outlets to cut investigative journalism, journalists everywhere are being bullied into asking fewer questions and doing less. 

This has a huge impact on our democracy. Not just in the growth of opinionated news coverage pushed by oligarchs, but also in the way complex issues such as the economy are reduced to soundbites that usually echo the worldview of the wealthy – promoting policies that support high and entrenched inequality and the immiseration of the rest of us as if this is just common sense. It shapes what people believe is possible, quashing hopeful and imaginative alternatives.

In order to build a more equal society, this has to change. Certainly, you can nag your friends and family to sign up to this newsletter (and you should), but there's only so much we can do. The good news is that more and more people are recognising this problem and doing something about it. We're currently in a renaissance for independent investigative local news outlets like London Centric, the Bristol Cable, Sheffield Tribune, or Glasgow Bell; independent journalists like Peter Apps working tirelessly on housing investigations; not to mention grassroots groups holding local government to account. All the skill and passion already exists! Now we just need our politicians to choose to support a more equal media.