The rise of personalized web consumption ended broadcasters’ power to compel attention

Evidence

As in the 1960s, this great turning away was the cause of no little consternation, if not degrees of panic, in the old attention industries. As the columnist-writer Dave Barry put it, “We can no longer compel people to pay attention. We used to be able to say, there’s this really important story in Poland. You should read this. Now people say, I just look up what I’m interested in on the Internet.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 921

Categorization

• XREF: The 1960s comparison — decline of the big three networks’ grip on attention — draws on earlier chapters of this same book. — connects to: Web 2.0 culture made audience size an alternate status hierarchy alongside engineering wealth.; Broadcasting personal data creates audience obligation that enforces behavior — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 567; Internet platforms gained unprecedented power to manufacture user behavior — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 941 (+10 more)
• SEED: An essay on ‘the end of compelled attention’ as a recurring historical pattern: TV in the 60s, web in the 2000s, streaming/platform algorithms today.