Final answer:
The shift away from newspapers as a source of information has profound effects on societies as news sources become more fractured, allowing people to choose what they want to hear and avoid. This shift has impacted how news stories are reported and consumed.
Step-by-step explanation:
The subject of this question is Social Studies as it deals with the shift in news sources and its impact on society.
News stories in major papers like The New York Times and The Washington Post are not generally any longer or more comprehensive than those of such sources as television news channels like CNN and news-containing websites like MSNBC.com. This shift away from newspapers as a source of information has profound effects on societies. When the news is given to a large diverse conglomerate of people, it must maintain some level of broad-based reporting and balance in order to appeal to a broad audience and keep them subscribing. As newspapers decline, news sources become more fractured, so each segment of the audience can choose specifically what it wants to hear and what it wants to avoid.