Media function like banks issuing credit denominated in attention

Evidence

Franck sees public events like conferences, concerts, television events, beauty contests, competitions, theatrical performances, exhibitions, but also all activity in public as ‘vanity fairs’ which constitute the stock exchanges of attention capital, the marketplace of its fluctuating value. Franck refers to social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on) as extended vanity fairs (2020: 14). For Franck, attention capital functions in ways very similar to money. The mass media are like banks issuing credit in attention capital – allocating space and time in a programming schedule – which then brings greater or lesser returns on the original investment of attention capital. Within the economy of attention, the media have the same function as the financial sector in the money economy. Brands also constitute the systematic production, distribution and consumption of attention capital, and all aspects of social life are now brands: universities, schools, cities, towns, regions, countries, religions; today even every individual is subject to the compulsion to self-present to the world as a brand. — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 15

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets out Franck’s core analogy: media as banks issuing attention credit, public venues as stock exchanges where attention value fluctuates.
• XREF: Echoes the attention-economy framing in The Attention Merchants and the platform-literature reading purpose: this is the originating conceptual framework. — connects to: Mass media function as banks for the attention economy — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 159; TV channels operate as banks loaning out attention capital — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 160; Attention functions as convertible capital that individuals and institutions can bank and trade — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 14 (+6 more)

Related

• Mass media function as banks for the attention economy (similarity 0.92)
• TV channels operate as banks loaning out attention capital (similarity 0.88)
• Attention functions as convertible capital that individuals and institutions can bank and trade (similarity 0.84)
• Attention functions as currency in prestige-differentiated social groups (similarity 0.83)
• Attention functions as a currency that compounds like interest. (similarity 0.80)
• Mass-media profits derive from non-reciprocal attention exchange (similarity 0.80)
• Fame now precedes wealth in the attention economy (similarity 0.79)
• Attention operates as an addictive wealth of increasing returns (similarity 0.79)
• Advertising industrialized attention by converting it into a resellable commodity (similarity 0.79)
• Attention only becomes convertible capital through homogenizing measurement devices (similarity 0.78)
• Attention now functions like money as a common metric for cultural value. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Attention functions as convertible capital that individuals and institutions can bank and trade #expands (0.82) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 14
• Networks quantified audience attention as inventory sold by gross rating points #expands (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 489
• Advertising industrialized attention by converting it into a resellable commodity #expands (0.78) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 24
• Attention functions as a currency that compounds like interest. #expands (0.75) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 10
• Celebrity functions as stored attention convertible into commercial influence #exemplifies (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 150
• Ad-supported media sell audiences’ attention, not content, to advertisers #corroborates (0.73) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 219
• Mass-media profits derive from non-reciprocal attention exchange #corroborates (0.72) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 251