Blogs shifted attention harvesting from broadcast to peer sharing

Evidence

That anyone could start one was not the only radical feature of the blog. The form also popularized the idea of “sharing” as a means of drawing attention to things. This represented a real break with earlier models of attention harvesting, whose ideal of centralized authority was somewhere between the Third Reich’s enforced listening and the nationwide audiences of I Love Lucy: everyone gathering to listen to a single voice reaching the entire nation. Sharing was still primitive, amounting mostly to the trading of links, but it was already proving a powerful alternative means for information to spread, more in the manner of gossip or a conversation than a broadcast. It was another step toward what we now experience as the “social” proliferation of information and opinion. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 911

Categorization

• XREF: The broadcast-vs-gossip distinction echoes the centralization theme from earlier attention-harvesting history (radio, TV mass audiences); connects to Wu’s overall arc toward social media platforms. — connects to: Networks quantified audience attention as inventory sold by gross rating points — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 489; Online networks accidentally discovered that users recruit other users’ attention — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 719; The rise of personalized web consumption ended broadcasters’ power to compel attention — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 921 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The rise of personalized web consumption ended broadcasters’ power to compel attention #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 921
• Blogging opened public attention to nearly anyone with something to say #expands (0.78) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 909