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Disputing objective facts has become increasingly common in the past two decades. “Truth decay” has led us to a “post-truth” world, where misinformation and disinformation thrive, and where facts and data can be warped or rejected.

It is a story that has been told many times. First came the radio, then the television, and then, with great force and speed, the internet, dragging advertising dollars away from traditional media and local newspapers and into the hands, for the most part, of Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon.

And in a year where more than 4 billion people have been eligible to vote in elections across the world, including next week’s high stakes US election, the damaging potential of truth decay and misinformation is growing ever more powerful.

In Australia, where media concentration is higher than anywhere in the developed world, and where press freedom is on the decline, hundreds of rural and regional newspapers have been shut down. In America, more than two newspapers close every week, and more than 70 million Americans live in a ‘news desert’ or an area at high risk of becoming one. The problems with news deserts are manifold.

With little or no access to local news, all news becomes nationalised. The subtleties that make communities distinct are slowly lost, and so too is one’s sense of community — the importance of disparate people living in the same place, holding different political beliefs but sharing values that foster cooperation and friendliness and overcome disagreement.

The American diplomat Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously observed: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”

Today, as real communities have been replaced by online ones with customised news feeds that affirm our biases and disparage those with whom we disagree, too many people believe their opinions to be fact or deny that there is a difference between fact and opinion.

The purpose of propaganda and lies is not really to persuade. It is to cast doubt on the idea that anything can be trusted, that there is any one source of truth. It is to create a scepticism that discombobulates us all.

Society needs to find a way to foster organic shared experiences. In countries across the world, including the United Kingdom, politicians have proposed ideas like reintroducing mandatory national service or volunteering, but these appear half-baked. Getting people out of the home and into different communities is imperative.

The traditional press needs a comeback, particularly in regional communities. Perhaps governments need to find a way to encourage readers to subscribe, or otherwise tax big tech or require them to subsidise traditional journalism (a policy enacted with some limited success in Australia).

And finally, Artificial Intelligence companies need to find a better way to combat disinformation and manipulated content, with the governments’ help to restrict the spread of false content.