The Marketplace of Attention: How Audiences Take Shape in a Digital Age (The MIT Press)

Feature films, television shows, homemade videos, tweets, blogs, and breaking news: digital media offer an always-accessible, apparently inexhaustible supply of entertainment and information. Although choices seems endless, public attention is not. How do digital media find the audiences they need in an era of infinite choice? In The Marketplace of Attention , James Webster explains how audiences take shape in the digital age. Webster describes the factors that create audiences, including the preferences and habits of media users, the role of social networks, the resources and strategies of media providers, and the growing impact of media measures -- from ratings to user recommendations. He incorporates these factors into one comprehensive framework: the marketplace of attention. In doing so, he shows that the marketplace works in ways that belie our greatest hopes and fears about digital media. Some observers claim that digital media empower a new participatory culture; others fear that digital media encourage users to retreat to isolated enclaves. Webster shows that public attention is at once diverse and concentrated -- that users move across a variety of outlets, producing high levels of audience overlap. So although audiences are fragmented in ways that would astonish midcentury broadcasting executives, Webster argues that this doesn't signal polarization. He questions whether our preferences are immune from media influence, and he describes how our encounters with media might change our tastes. In the digital era's marketplace of attention, Webster claims, we typically encounter ideas that cut across our predispositions. In the process, we will remake the marketplace of ideas and reshape the twenty-first century public sphere. How do media find an audience when there is an endless supply of content but a limited supply of public attention?Feature films, television shows, homemade videos, tweets, blogs, and breaking news: digital media offer an always-accessible, apparently inexhaustible supply of entertainment and information. Although choices seems endless, public attention is not. How do digital media find the audiences they need in an era of infinite choice? In The Marketplace of Attention, James Webster explains how audiences take shape in the digital age.Webster describes the factors that create audiences, including the preferences and habits of media users, the role of social networks, the resources and strategies of media providers, and the growing impact of media measures—from ratings to user recommendations. He incorporates these factors into one comprehensive framework: the marketplace of attention. In doing so, he shows that the marketplace works in ways that belie our greatest hopes and fears about digital media.Some observers claim that digital media empower a new participatory culture; others fear that digital media encourage users to retreat to isolated enclaves. Webster shows that public attention is at once diverse and concentrated—that users move across a variety of outlets, producing high levels of audience overlap. So although audiences are fragmented in ways that would astonish midcentury broadcasting executives, Webster argues that this doesn't signal polarization. He questions whether our preferences are immune from media influence, and he describes how our encounters with media might change our tastes. In the digital era's marketplace of attention, Webster claims, we typically encounter ideas that cut across our predispositions. In the process, we will remake the marketplace of ideas and reshape the twenty-first century public sphere. How do media find an audience when there is an endless supply of content but a limited supply of public attention? Feature films, television shows, homemade videos, tweets, blogs, and breaking digital media offer an always-accessible, apparently inexhaustible supply of entertainment and information. Although choices seems endless, public attention is not. How do digital media find the audiences they need in an era of infinite choice? In The Marketplace of Attention , James Webster explains how audiences take shape in the digital age. Webster describes the factors that create audiences, including the preferences and habits of media users, the role of social networks, the resources and strategies of media providers, and the growing impact of media measuresfrom ratings to user recommendations. He incorporates these factors into one comprehensive the marketplace of attention. In doing so, he shows that the marketplace works in ways that belie our greatest hopes and fears about digital media. Some observers claim that digital media empower a new participatory culture; others fear that digital media encourage users to retreat to isolated enclaves. Webster shows that public attention is at once diverse and concentratedthat users move across a variety of outlets, producing high levels of audience overlap. So although audiences are fragmented in ways that would astonish midcentury broadcasting executives, Webster argues that this doesn't signal polarization. He questions whether our preferences are immune from media influence, and he describes how our encounters with media might change our tastes. In the digital era's marketplace of attention, Webster claims, we typically encounter ideas that cut across our predispositions. In the process, we will remake the marketplace of ideas and reshape the twenty-first century public sphere. The Marketplace of attention. Digital media ; Attention ; The marketplace ; Audiences ; In the balance Media users. Ways of seeing ; Media choice ; The user's dilemma ; The role of social networks ; Going viral ; The structures of everyday life ; The puzzle of preferences The media. The attention economy ; Making media ; Making audiences ; Desperately seeking attention Media measures. The rise of media measures ; Making measures ; Bias in measurement ; Seeing the world through "big data" Audience formations. Audience fragmentation ; Preference-driven loyalties ; Structure-driven loyalties ; Local news and information ; Massively overlapping culture Constructing the marketplace of attention. Structuration ; The dimensions of structure ; A map of media structures ; The interaction of structure and agency ; Structuring preferences ; The swing vote Public attention in the marketplace of ideas. The marketplace of ideas ; Stories of hope and despair ; Questioning our assumptions ; The shape of things to come. Webster describes factors that create audiences, including preferences and habits of media users, the role of social networks, the resources and strategies of media providers, and the growing impact of media measures--from ratings to user recommendations. He shows that the marketplace works in ways that belie our greatest hopes and fears about digital media and shows that public attention is at once diverse and concentrated--that users move across a variety of outlets, producing high levels of audience overlap. He questions whether our preferences are immune from media influence, and he describes how our encounters with media might change our tastes. Webster claims we typically encounter ideas that cut across our predispositions. In the process, we will remake the marketplace of ideas and reshape the twenty-first century public sphere. -- Edited summary from book Feature films, television shows, homemade videos, tweets, blogs, and breaking news: digital media offer an always-accessible, apparently inexhaustible supply of entertainment and information. Although choices seems endless, public attention is not. How do digital media find the audiences they need in an era of infinite choice? In __The Marketplace of Attention__, James Webster explains how audiences take shape in the digital age. Content: The marketplace of attention -- Media users -- The media -- Media measures -- Audience formations -- Constructing the marketplace of attention -- Public attention in the marketplace of ideas.