The media and economy of attention

Jan Kreft

The conception of economics of attention links to the key meaning of information, concentrating on the problem of its redundancy. Considering the redundancy of information, attention is particularly valuable. According to the attention economy, it is attention, not information, that is the foundation of forming social and economic systems in the days of new media. The consequence of generating attention with the aid of media on such an unprecedented scale, is the formation of new context, which may be called the culture of distraction (the distraction culture). Considering the above problems, the journalists' role can become more important than ever. Their part is to represent great visions as an information overload makes putting together the elements of our reality very difficult.

KEYWORDS

economy of attention, new media, journalism