[palmfacehn]

In my understanding, most Soviet citizens were acutely aware that Pravda was official party propaganda. The western system is different in that there are two opposing poles of information. To be concise, some who study the dissemination of propaganda in the US regard each respective pole as a false alternative. This is referred to as, "positioning the goal posts". You can go quite deep into this rabbit hole. There's a fair amount of nonsense, but also some choice kernels that may help you better understand the media landscape.