Our understanding of the world is limited to a foveal slice of reality. Nearly *everything* any of us knows comes almost entirely from the testimony of others. Including the very words we write and speak. Our entire concept of reality if path dependent on the aggregation of socially-delivered information, and abstracted into frameworks of understanding. Nobody’s knowledge of the world is solitary in nature. In fact, even where knowledge is derived from evidence, the interpretation of that evidence is almost always delivered through testimony. You cannot escape this. The internet doesn’t make this better.
Discussion
This is true. What is news is the other question. It all differs depending on perspectives. It should really come from those directly affected by whatever the news topic is. Not relayed and manipulated across a giant game of online Chinese Whispers (I think that school game is referred to as telegram in the US?). And even then there will still be different perspectives from those directly affected.
Have you read The Constitution of Knowledge by Jonathon Rauch? It’s about this very thing.
I haven't! But I just added it to the Kindle!