Attention Economy


Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Television and Modern Politics

A fascinating piece by PETER BEINART, an associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York.
“For more than a year now, Washington politicos and world leaders have been conducting a vast experiment in child psychology: How do you sway an American president who has the attention span, self-discipline, and self-awareness, of a child? Two primary strategies have emerged.
The dominant strategy among world leaders has been gaudy flattery. Foreign governments have exploited Trump’s tendency to conflate the way they treat him with the way they treat the United States…Washington politicos, however, can’t dazzle Trump with exotic splendor. Instead, many have pursued a different strategy: Appearances on television"