Simultaneous mass attention on the same show created shared national identity

Evidence

With the establishment of prime time, daytime, and other new zones of attention, we see in effect another feature of the modern self emerge. Insofar as we are influenced, even formed, to some degree, by whatever we pay attention to, the novel fact of an entire population listening to the same show at the same time every day could not help but create a new degree of shared awareness, even shared identity. Prime time was (and to a lesser degree remains) a massive ritual of collective attention, a force drawing people together. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 331

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities thesis about print capitalism and nation-building, plus later chapters on live-event television cultivating national togetherness. — connects to: Shared attention builds a collective rather than merely private reality — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 121; Attentional exploitation can be transformed into a basis for collective political identity; Joint attention practices generate shared political power. (+8 more)
• SEED: Angle: the decline of appointment-viewing and simultaneous mass attention as a loss of shared civic ritual — what replaced prime time’s collective attention with individual algorithmic feeds.

Broader Connections

• Shared attention builds a collective rather than merely private reality #corroborates (0.90) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 121
• Attentional alignment with others generates communal powers no individual could reach alone #corroborates (0.85) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 111
• Joint attention practices generate shared political power. #expands (0.80)
• Attentional exploitation can be transformed into a basis for collective political identity #expands (0.75)
• National identity is constructed through stories, memories, and images #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 123
• Networked audiences enable public enforcement of social norms #expands (0.72) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 575
• Individual attention selection spontaneously aligns people into shared communities of sensibility #expands (0.70) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 110