Attention Economy


Friday, December 20, 2024

The Trust Deficit

The US Economy’s Trust Deficit
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/disconnect-between-us-economic-performance-and-public-perception-by-michael-spence-2024-12
In a complex economy, agents must rely on intermediaries – including the traditional media, government, or experts – to close information gaps, anchor beliefs, and determine equilibrium. But this process can work only if the intermediaries are trustworthy, and many Americans are not convinced that they are. 

The Artificial State
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/11/11/the-artificial-state
As American civic life has become increasingly shaped by algorithms, trust in government has plummeted. Is there any turning back? 

Why the TikTok era spells trouble for the establishment
https://www.ft.com/content/2262f82e-fb65-445b-b99c-b039c1b32ce9
JOHN BURN-MURDOCH:
Print has been in decline for several decades, but perhaps less appreciated is the cratering in consumption of any written news at all. The share of adults reading news articles online in the US has fallen from 70 to 50 per cent since 2013. The share of Britons and Americans now consuming no conventional news media at all has ballooned from 8 to around 30 per cent. While the decline of print was mainly a problem for newspapers’ bottom lines, the decline in all news consumption is a problem for society.
Social media now dominates. Today, US adults under the age of 50 are more likely to get their news directly from social feeds than from a news article whether in print or online, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s latest Digital News Report.