The media definitely has a giant effect, I agree. Maybe some Americans believe what they hear about more deeply than others. But all of us are talking about it, so clearly the media has to have at least some effect in structuring this biased conversation.

Funnily enough, the same media outlets who talk about shitting in the streets in India say the same thing about San Francisco, like, really often. It's a trope that must have been proven by some analytics platform to get a lot of clicks. So the content writers are instructed to juice this topic for all its worth. Craziness