There was a small study done in the UK where people were asked if they though crime had gone up or down in the last 10-15 years. Most all participants thought crime had gone up a significant amount in recent times, when in reality crime rates are dropping significantly.
Now of course there are many factors involved in the rate of crime dropping on paper, which can include petty crimes not being reported as it is not seen as worth the hassle along with areas of the UK no longer policing marijuana so heavily. Though you would still attribute this drop on paper to a real drop in crime.
Media
This directly correlates to the media over the last 10-15 years covering vastly more stories on crime than ever before. The true influence of media as whole is being talked about constantly in the media. This influenced is often used a misdirect, pushing certain stories or just small parts of a bigger picture to almost misdirect people into chattering about the less important facts.
It is more than a coincidence that all the large media outlets, country to country, run the same stories but with slightly different narratives. Which creates a lot of talking points but often meaningless talking points. For example in the UK Brexit is used and in America currently Donald trumps ties to Russia, In the UK we are still, still constantly hear discussion on whether there should be another vote, which would completely make a mockery of our political system and every politician that would be involved in another vote.
Then in America all we hear is Trump and Russia, what is going on between them? But we never hear about trumps ties to varies other countries around the world. Russia is the tip of the iceberg yet it is all that is talked about in most mainstream media.
Who runs things?
The reason we see the same stories over and over with varying narratives is because the same people own most of world media, England has its big media tycoon that owns most of the major publications and the same goes for most countries.
Because of the media having the same owners they control the stories that are pushed. Then they set the tone and everyone seems to just follow, a lot of the people writing the stories have know idea that they are helping to push a certain narrative as they are just as caught up in it as most other people.
What does this mean?
I'm not trying to say there is a large conspiracy or anything like that I am just trying to set the tone. If you were in a position of power, running a media empire, and you had a good idea of the ins and outs of the inner political workings and discussion would you share it all? Or just share a little?
I think in that position most people would only share a little because a lot of information would not be massively relevant to the general public, let alone trying to get people that can clearly share the full story in a way that everyone could understand.
We live in a world where information is freely available but a lot of what we see is misinformation. However most people also have access to information but they are't intelligent enough to find it, without mentioning you need some luck.
Imagine the general public, the 99% all live in a bubble, tightly packed sharing information inside this bubble. Now imagine a second bubble with the 1% also sharing information in their bubble.
Information doesn't regularly cross from bubble to bubble but people can cross from one bubble to another if they are willing and able.
I see life in this way if you are willing and able you can become part of any 'bubble' you want. The people at the 'top' can not be blamed for not sharing every bit of information they have when the people at the 'bottom' do the same. If you want to find out how the other side lives and what they know you only have to go and find out and gain as many perspectives as possible.