Do you mean, like, if they suddenly stopped existing or if they never developed?
AskBeehaw
An open-ended community for asking and answering various questions! Permissive of asks, AMAs, and OOTLs (out-of-the-loop) alike.
In the absence of flairs, questions requesting more thought-out answers can be marked by putting [SERIOUS] in the title.
Subcommunity of Chat
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
I am no expert and can only make a few guesses here based on my experience in the USA.
Generally speaking, most corporate billionaire owned news organizations are just propaganda machines spewing misinformation (lies) in order to benefit themselves and fuck every one else.
However, there are quit a bit of independent media outlets ("...community-based, member- and audience-supported, nonprofit, not-for-profit, cooperative, and social justice oriented news publications, primarily based in the United States and Canada."). These have become essential for millions of people to stay informed since the corporate slop isn't working.
In brief, having news organizations that serve to inform the public is incredibly useful and should be maintained. It is a public service that has enormous benefits such as preserving our democracy.
At this point probably filled with fake news and rage-bait from social media.