I'd like to analyze this subject a bit. What is the point in writing this essay? What do I want the takeaway be for the readers? Would it be a contender as the ultimate essay on the subject of media economics?

First of all, media economics is "the study of how economic principles apply to media industries, examining how scarce resources are used to create and distribute content to audiences, advertisers, and society." The essay can explore how media is bought and sold and used to exploit attention and action from a specific audience.

Right now, the headline has a "how" which leads to an opinion article. While my opinion will be sprinkled throughout, my plan is to cover enough ground with links to resources.

"How Media Economics is Used to Weaponize Attention" was an original headline. My plan is to work through several to find the hook.

It’s no secret media and code are the tools of leverage in the 21st century. Both scale almost infinitely. And anyone can do both.

Of the two, code is a specialized focus. It’s how we tell computers what to do. Code is what runs companies, economies, and militaries. While anyone can learn to code, not everyone has a desire to go deep into it. For those with the desire to build abstract ideas into products, code is the way to go.

Media is a means of communication through the channels and tools used to store, deliver, or transmit data and information. It can mean anything from a simple image to a documentary on a subject to the news we read to the music we listen to. Anyone can make media and everyone does in some way or another. Write a post on Facebook? Media. Take some photos of the family and share them on Instagram? Media. Anything you create and share can be considered media of some form or another.

For me, media is a better fit. The way it works is easy to understand. While code has its own barriers to entry, media, at least for me, is a door worth opening.

Media literacy in the 21st century is critical thinking by another name. The tools of tech have made it easy for anyone to slip back into non-thinking land. They have also made it important to understand what media tells us. Media is the key to narrative design. And narratives are what drive culture.

Media is everywhere we bring phones. Go out onto any street corner and watch people for an hour or so. Or even 15 minutes. What you will noticed is the majority of everyone will have their faces buried in their phones. Scrolling. Doom scrolling. Rage scrolling. Many people will have headphones in their ears. They could be listening to a podcast or some music. Whatever it is they are doing, they are consuming media with their phone.

We all do this. I’m typing this up on a phone right now. This is a part of life; how we connect with friends and family and co-workers and whoever else we need to get in touch with. Many people can’t even function without their phones.

This brings me to the ideas around media which are consumption and creation. Media is hard to create and the easiest thing to consume. This is why you can stand on a street corner and watch people move around while their noses are buried in their phones. They are consuming something. Maybe it’s important, maybe not. I’m not one to judge.

What concerns me are the incentives we have around consuming media. It was once a passive experience. There weren’t a lot of devices other than a tv and some form of stereo. Then came the Walkman and iPod and iPhone and then there was social media and MySpace then Facebook then Twitter then Snap then TikTok. It doesn’t seem to stop. OnlyFans and YouTube were even included in my thinking.

Social media may drive many people crazy and it’s still the best place to create and consume media. I don’t have any numbers on me but I’m willing to bet most people lurk and consume social media posts. Using the Pareto analysis, 20% of the any social networks users create the content the rest of the 80% consumes.

We can take an arm chair analysis further too. The 20% is also the number of most followed by the other 80%. I could go on and on here but won’t.

Media is created for people to consume on their free time for information or data or a laugh or whatever. Anyone can do it; not anyone can do it well; most have not mastered any of it.

In the early days of the internet, media created and shared was harmless. Most people were astounded at they could do this too. A new medium was born. One where anyone with a keyboard, computer, internet connection, and a few bright ideas could share with someone else.

Now media is used to build audiences for all sorts of people and organizations. For being a loose network of nodes, the internet has leveled the playing field in ways many people still don’t comprehend. Anyone can post media; can post a blog; can share their “valid” opinions.

There are darker sides to media beyond propaganda as well. Social media networks are known to broadcast negative posts to boost engagement. Incentives like this can be a moral hazard. And the networks have no incentive to stop. The Twitter/X algorithm will pay out random amounts of money to accounts with viral posts. Most viral content is shitposting with no lasting value.

Negative incentives by Twitter/fb

Memes as propaganda

Social media to build an audience-for-one

Politician to populist turns

Tribalism

How propaganda can be amplified

Ways to continue critical thinking and media literacy.

New platform, new media. Think I may use this space to explore media literacy, narrative design, and propaganda.