Yeah the whole "if it bleeds it leads" mantra has caused a lot of damage to society in its own right too. Almost all the paranoia about crime and terrorism and social collapse for the last 50 or so years has likely stemmed from those things making the headlines in the papers and people assuming that means they're more common than they used to be.

Humans seriously struggle to understand the difference between "more common" and "more documented".

And yes, the media has definitely gotten worse too. Outrage and anger gets attention, so inflammatory content and blatant clickbait run wild online.