Public attention is a self-reproducing form of value convertible into fame

Evidence

One of the earliest attempts to analyze attention in economic terms was the work of the French sociologist, Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904), who highlighted in his “economic psychology” the centrality of advertising in the mass media as a means of capturing and holding attention. He noted that newspapers were “a kind of great, continuous and general advertisement” (1902: 133). Tarde saw the capacity to focus public attention as a primary source of value, convertible to economic value, and manifested as celebrity or fame. This capacity was in turn self-reproducing, in the sense that the fact that a person is already the focus of attention in the public sphere takes on an objective reality, which in turn prompts others to direct their attention towards them as well. To a large extent our perception of a public figure is determined not through careful consideration of their virtues and vices, but by the cues we get from the social world around us. Tarde saw the capacity to attract attention as amenable to quantification, suggesting the invention of a “gloriometer” that would measure (a) how many people had heard of a public figure, (b) how many positively admired that person, and (c) the social “weight” of their admirers, by which he meant how well-known they themselves were (1902: 56). — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 6

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the core attention-economy precursor: attention as value, celebrity as its manifestation, and the self-reinforcing loop.
• QUESTION: Tarde’s ‘gloriometer’ is a remarkable early quantification proposal — worth tracing whether any contemporary influence-measurement metric resembles it.
• XREF: Connects directly to modern platform metrics (followers, engagement) and to the originating essay’s conceptual history of the attention economy. — connects to: Self-branding unifies commodified attention, achieved status, and ascribed celebrity. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 412; Self-promotion wins recognition that itself becomes a selling credential — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 447; Fame now precedes wealth in the attention economy — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 139 (+12 more)
• SHARE: The specific ‘gloriometer’ with its three weighted measures is a delicious nerdy fact for anyone studying influence metrics or celebrity.

Related

• Early media proprietors self-aggrandized grandly while chasing reader attention (similarity 0.85)
• Tarde described fame as an economy of visibility measured by attentional convergence. (similarity 0.82)
• Attention functions as convertible capital that individuals and institutions can bank and trade (similarity 0.82)
• Fame now precedes wealth in the attention economy (similarity 0.82)
• Celebrity functions as stored attention convertible into commercial influence (similarity 0.81)
• Attention operates as an addictive wealth of increasing returns (similarity 0.81)
• Attention operates as a form of capital that accrues interest and concentrates inequality. (similarity 0.81)
• Michael H. Goldhaber — The Attention Economy and the Net (similarity 0.80)
• Attention now functions like money as a common metric for cultural value. (similarity 0.80)
• Attention from audiences provides genuine affective and psychological benefits (similarity 0.79)
• Attention functions as currency in prestige-differentiated social groups (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Attention functions as convertible capital that individuals and institutions can bank and trade #expands (0.95) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 14
• Measuring attention as data enables treating it as a monetizable resource #expands (0.90)
• Attention functions as a currency that compounds like interest. #corroborates (0.88) — Michael H. Goldhaber, The Attention Economy and the Net, 10
• Advertising industrialized attention by converting it into a resellable commodity #exemplifies (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 24
• Networks quantified audience attention as inventory sold by gross rating points #exemplifies (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 489
• Attention can be quantitatively measured and thereby bought and sold. #corroborates (0.82) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 121
• Attention now functions like money as a common metric for cultural value. #corroborates (0.82) — Annual Review of Anthropology contributors (⚠ verify author line), The Political Economy of Attention, 18
• Attention scarcity can be turned into an asset through redistributed attention #expands (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 337