I highly recommend the book 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' by Neil Postman.
In it, he details how public discourse in America was completely undone by the advent of television, and specifically a visual media over a written/spoken media.
Images cannot replace true dialogue, discussion, and debate. Yet, that is exactly what has happened in the age of television!
The Soviet Union mastered the art of propaganda using mass broadcasting platforms. The US wasn't that far either.
I might even put mobile phones and social media here, but I don't because there you have a choice. The TV is pretty much just download nonsense, and no way to interact with it.