I don’t know how many folks have read Dos Passos USA trilogy, written in the 1930s. The other day, I read(?) heard(?) someone comment in it, saying that it wasn’t really a novel, that it was a bunch of snippets.
That says, to me, that she didn’t understand it in any way. It covers multiple character threads. To help understand how and why these characters respond, the reader need to understand what’s happening in society. Remember, back then the majority of people still lived in rural areas, and not everyone had a radio, much less a radio station that carried news (nor was it broadcasting 24 hours/day). They also didn’t always see, much less read, a newspaper, and so this filled that in. The result was a big picture of society, and the characters’ place in it.
The only writer I know of that successfully followed the style was John Brunner, in his 1968 novel, Stand on Zanzibar. Again, it was then a not-that-near future (40+ years away), and he had multiple character threads, and a society that he wanted the reader to comprehend… without infodumps and “as you know, Bob”. As it won the Hugo for best novel, he clearly succeeded.
With that last note, I think it works very well for science fiction where society has changed from the here and now.
This is especially relevant to me, as I use that same style in my second novel, Becoming Terran. I have three major characters, four secondary characters, and a large cast of others, all drawn in by world events. As both Dos Passos and Brunner did, I have brief chapters of newsfeeds… and I avoid infodumps, and Bob.
Hope this is enough to encourage you to pick it up when it comes out, hopefully later this year.