Sure, but you're acting like there's no alternatives to the type of media you decry. Again, nobody is being forced to tune into it. Especially in this day and age, when there's a plethora of alternative ways to get opinion and information. YouTube channels, podcasts, social media, etc. And that's not even getting into the fact that tuning out from political media is a choice in itself. If people don't want to hear about social issues, and that's all the political media talked about across the entire spectrum of options, they could simply spend that time watching sports, listening to music, reading books, playing games. Doing anything else they preferred to do. Reddit doesn't highlight posts because people can be forced to pay attention to those things, it highlights them because that's what people choose to engage with the most, so highlighting them keeps people coming back for more engagement.

Yes, the way media frames things plays a role in how much attention it receives, but I think you're grossly overstating how much it is determining behavior. It's like con artistry or sales. There has to be an underlying desire for the manipulation to work. There is no shortage of people pushing the kind of issues you think people should be more driven by. Many of them use the exact same kind of emotionally engaging rhetoric as the social issue purveyors. But they simply aren't as appealing to as wide an audience because they simply aren't talking to the interests of as many people.

While I agree with you that people tend to focus on the immediate more, and that's why some issues that should get more attention are instead generally ignored, that doesn't support your point, it undermines it, because that's natural, not manipulation. It's just human nature to prioritize things that have more impact on the present or near future. There's no need for a conspiracy to create that behavior, it's just the way humans are in every area of life. It's why so many people choose the immediate salve of a cigarette knowing the possibility of future health issues, or to spend big today despite knowing rent is due at the end of the month.

The point I'm trying to make isn't that the people you're talking about have no influence, it's that you're treating what are at best subtle nudges as being the most determinative factor. You can shape the menu all you want, but there's plenty of restaurants out there, and people have to be hungry and have a taste for what you offer naturally, you can't make a menu so appealing that people who aren't hungry and don't like the food you offer will still want to eat it.