Three channels were enough for near-total national uniformity of attention and experience

Evidence

With a great many Americans, sometimes even a majority, watching the same programs, exposed to the same information, every day—or if not exactly the same, the same theme with slight variations—a kind of convergence was inevitable. Sitting in silence, everyone would “receive the same impulses and impressions, find themselves focused on the same centers of interest, experience the same feelings, have generally the same order of reactions or ideas, participate in the same myths—and all this at the same time.” That there were three channels to choose from hardly mattered. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 454

Categorization

• XREF: The shared-impulses-and-myths idea echoes earlier chapters’ linking of mass media with mythic participation and national identity formation. — connects to: Simultaneous mass attention on the same show created shared national identity — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 331; Radical attention is rooted in proximate 1-to-1 scale practices — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 314; Attention is diverse cognitive engagement, not narrow focus — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!: A Manifesto of the…, 496 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Simultaneous mass attention on the same show created shared national identity #corroborates (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 331
• Presential joint attention differs in kind from media-captured attention by its participant-limited scale. #complicates (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 304
• Radical attention is rooted in proximate 1-to-1 scale practices #complicates (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 314
• Attention works as a needle weaving global links at the price of inequality #qualifies (0.72) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 560
• Attention is diverse cognitive engagement, not narrow focus #complicates (0.70) — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 496