Semantics of the passage

In the line that the question is specifically referring to, the passage states that... "Yet this is still fundamentally different from an ancient society in which there was "popular literature,"i.e., newspapers, magazines, or other media that dealt with sociopolitical issues." This seems to imply that contemporary societies are fundamentally different from ancient societies on the specific issue of "popular literature." Meaning ancient societies are characterized by having popular literature but contemporary societies are not. So then, I am confused on how the correct answer can align contemporary societies with popular literature by saying that "Although contemporary societies rely heavily on the knowledge of experts, access to popular literature makes contemporary societies less dependent on experts for information about rules of behavior than were ancient societies." It would seem that the correct answer should say ancient societies were more dependent on the elites because of the popular literature that supplied them with political knowledge rather than contemporary societies being less dependent on the elite because they now have popular literature.