That may inform others and possibly even change their minds on important issues.
So even if you're not out there marching in protests or volunteering for your favorite political organization, you can still make a difference by informing others.
The effect of this is evident on HN, which used to be almost exclusively a navel-gazing tech and startup news site, but has over the years become more politically aware.
I believe that things like the recent tech employee moves towards unionizing, and various protests at companies like Google are partially motivated by information employees at these companies received on sites like HN, where important political topics are discussed and people are informed.
Sticking one's head in the sand by ignoring news makes it less likely that you'll ever be motivated to do anything yourself and less likely you'll help motivate anyone else to act either.
Wouldn't that imply that we don't live in a democracy and ppl are picking boxes at random at the ballot box?
2) If we're going the informed-voter justification, we'd be much (for large values of "much") better off if everyone took 99% of the time they spend on news and instead read foundational works and textbooks in political science, economics, comparative politics, ethics, statistics, history, and government in [home country], with maybe a smidge of modern policy pieces (e.g. think-tank stuff, policy studies, that kind of thing).
Is that what the article is discussing though?
One of my close friend coming out as gay in high school has had a larger effect on who I have voted for during my lifetime than any news.