Attention became the dominant frame for explaining Trump-era politics.

Evidence

The fact that his election was so surprising was framed as a failure of journalistic attention to the scope of his support (Rutenberg 2016); his success was attributed to his ability to command media attention (Rivero 2016); the stream of controversies once he was in office was described as a tactical effort to distract the public from actual political machinations (Gabbatt 2017); and among liberal critics, it was common to suggest that Trump’s behavior might be explained by attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or the abuse of stimulant medications used to treat it (Kruse 2019). — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 15

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s attention/platform/surveillance reading purpose — these Trump-era framings are a concrete case of attention as an analytic lens. — connects to: Politics itself is being reshaped by attentional extraction industries; Attention is the defining political and existential question of the current era; Attention has emerged as a site of political, economic, and moral struggle — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 10 (+1 more)
• SEED: Potential essay angle: how ‘attention’ replaced other political explanations across the political spectrum during 2016-2019.

Related

• Attention functions as a political economy embedded in specific temporal contexts (similarity 0.83)
• Collective political attention is structured by environmental agenda-setting mechanisms. (similarity 0.81)
• Politics itself is being reshaped by attentional extraction industries (similarity 0.81)
• Attention has emerged as a site of political, economic, and moral struggle (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Politics itself is being reshaped by attentional extraction industries #expands (0.88)
• Attention has emerged as a site of political, economic, and moral struggle #corroborates (0.85) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 10
• Attention is the defining political and existential question of the current era #expands (0.82)
• Attention functions as a political economy embedded in specific temporal contexts #expands (0.75) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 25