• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, Yesterday

For the past 128 days the online news outlets have used the term "Trump 2.0" about 176,000 times, but based on the findings of new data being released today it maybe more apt to use the term "America 2.0." And not necessarily in the good way.

The truth is, America has always been a volatile, divided nation full of discord and dissonance. That's what happens when you give people the freedom to express themselves -- as well as inform themselves base on how others express themselves -- but rapid shifts in the technology people use to do both those things is something no one -- not our founding fathers, our current leaders, or American voters -- ever prepared for. It has also created new vectors for malevolent, hostile actors to exploit and sow discord, disbelief and undermine our democratic norms.

This is not new, of course, but it's accelerating at a pace that arguably is reaching a tipping point for democracy.

It's been more than three years since I first published a chart correlating a decline in the world's population living in a democracy with the rise of internet penetration, and based on the past 128 days I wonder how long America will remain on this map illustrating the world's electoral democracies.

That is, if you believe some of the anti-democratic, 2.0 rhetoric and actions Trump has pushed so far.

How much father he can go will be a test of our democratic institutions -- certainly not the Article 1 or 2 branches, for now -- but the courts, the media and the American people.

The problem with the media part is that they no longer are "The Powers That Be," and have increasingly been drowned out by the noise of misinformation, disinformation, inanity, and maybe even anarchy.

The truth is that for all Trump disparages the "mainstream media," that label no longer means anything, because there's nothing mainstream about it anymore.

You've already seen countless studies from Pew and other organizations showing the declining role of mainstream news outlets as a source for fact-based reporting, and the rise of social media, "news influencers," podcasters and their ilk as the sources of news and information Americans increasingly turn to.

This morning, CivicScience released new data showing that social media outlets now are the place a fifth of all Americans turn to first for breaking news (see above).

That trend coincides with a rollback in fact-checking moderation, which has been replaced by "community notes," and lord knows what algorithmic changes, among the major social media platforms.

It also correlates with Trump continuing attacks on bona fide news media, including efforts to defund public media outlets and legal and regulatory threats against the best of the commercial ones.

Big brands and agencies have been one of the surprising bright spots supporting responsible, commercial news media outlets, even if they have throttled back on pressuring social media to be responsible about safeguarding society from harmful content.

The ad industry's voices may have grown more muted following threats from the White House, Elon Musk, Jim Jordan and other proxies, but I hope its media planning and buying actions continue to speak louder than its words.