While newspaper circulation is in decline it is still significant. The Daily Mail reaches over 650,000 people every day. But that's not all. The Mail Online is the most visited English-language newspaper in the world reaching nearly 200 million unique visitors in a month. Combined with all the other print publications in the UK and associated online presence this is a massive reach.

And it doesn't stop there. Every day the broadcast media feature "tomorrow's front pages", so the headlines are amplified to the 70% of UK adults getting news from TV.

What does that do? It generates a massive amount of online discussion, amplifying the headlines even further, mostly just repeating what the headlines wanted the audience to think.

In an ideal world this would not be a problem - indeed it could be a major contribution to a healthy democracy.

But 90% (and growing) of the UK-wide print media is owned and controlled by just three companies: Reach plc (formerly Trinity Mirror), News UK and DMG Media, and behind those companies are a small group of very wealthy individuals with strong political views, some of whom set the political agenda for their publications. Instead of journalism holding the powerful to account, there are powerful individuals setting the political agenda with no democratic accountability.

So headlines do matter but reading behind them and challenging them matters even more.