The Attention Merchants

Author: Tim Wu
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804170045
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Book Description
From the author of the award-winning The Master Switch, who coined the term "net neutrality”—a revelatory, ambitious and urgent account of how the capture and re-sale of human attention became the defining industry of our time. "Dazzling." —Financial Times Ours is often called an information economy, but at a moment when access to information is virtually unlimited, our attention has become the ultimate commodity. In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of efforts to harvest our attention. This condition is not simply the byproduct of recent technological innovations but the result of more than a century's growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. Wu’s narrative begins in the nineteenth century, when Benjamin Day discovered he could get rich selling newspapers for a penny. Since then, every new medium—from radio to television to Internet companies such as Google and Facebook—has attained commercial viability and immense riches by turning itself into an advertising platform. Since the early days, the basic business model of “attention merchants” has never changed: free diversion in exchange for a moment of your time, sold in turn to the highest-bidding advertiser. Full of lively, unexpected storytelling and piercing insight, The Attention Merchants lays bare the true nature of a ubiquitous reality we can no longer afford to accept at face value.

The Attention Merchants

Author: Tim Wu
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385352026
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 417

The Attention Merchants

Author: Tim Wu
Publisher: Atlantic Books
ISBN: 1782394842
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 539

Book Description
Attention merchant: an industrial-scale harvester of human attention. A firm whose business model is the mass capture of attention for resale to advertisers. In nearly every moment of our waking lives, we face a barrage of advertising enticements, branding efforts, sponsored social media, commercials and other efforts to harvest our attention. Over the last century, few times or spaces have remained uncultivated by the 'attention merchants', contributing to the distracted, unfocused tenor of our times. Tim Wu argues that this is not simply the byproduct of recent inventions but the end result of more than a century's growth and expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. From the pre-Madison Avenue birth of advertising to TV's golden age to our present age of radically individualized choices, the business model of 'attention merchants' has always been the same. He describes the revolts that have risen against these relentless attempts to influence our consumption, from the remote control to FDA regulations to Apple's ad-blocking OS. But he makes clear that attention merchants grow ever-new heads, and their means of harvesting our attention have given rise to the defining industries of our time, changing our nature - cognitive, social, and otherwise - in ways unimaginable even a generation ago.

The Curse of Bigness

Author: Tim Wu
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780999745465
Category : BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Languages : en
Pages : 154

Book Description
From the man who coined the term "net neutrality" and who has made significant contributions to our understanding of antitrust policy and wireless communications, comes a call for tighter antitrust enforcement and an end to corporate bigness.

The Master Switch

Author: Tim Wu
Publisher: Atlantic Books Ltd
ISBN: 0857892126
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Book Description
Winner of the 2011 Business Book of the Year Award The Internet Age: on the face of it, an era of unprecedented freedom in both communication and culture. Yet in the past, each major new medium, from telephone to satellite television, has crested on a wave of similar idealistic optimism, before succumbing to the inevitable undertow of industrial consolidation. Every once free and open technology has, in time, become centralized and closed; as corporate power has taken control of the 'master switch.' Today a similar struggle looms over the Internet, and as it increasingly supersedes all other media the stakes have never been higher. Part industrial exposé, part examination of freedom of expression, The Master Switch reveals a crucial drama - full of indelible characters - as it has played out over decades in the shadows of global communication.

Stand Out of Our Light

Author: James Williams
Publisher:
ISBN: 1108429092
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 151

Book Description
Argues that human freedom is threatened by systems of intelligent persuasion developed by tech giants who compete for our time and attention. This title is also available as Open Access.

Life Admin

Author: Elizabeth F. Emens
Publisher: HarperOne
ISBN: 0544557239
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Book Description
Life "admin" are the administrative tasks that have exploded in our busy lives. Scheduling. Planning. Paying. The busier our lives are, the more the invisible "admin" piles up on top of us. A working mother, Emens realized that mental labor was consuming her. To survive-- and to help others along the way-- she gathered favorite tips and tricks, admin confessions, and the secrets of admin-happy households. Get past the invisible quicksand that is holding you back and learn how to do less "admin"--And do it better. -- adapted from publisher info

The Curse of Bigness

Author: Tim Wu
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781838950873
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description

Subprime Attention Crisis

Author: Tim Hwang
Publisher: FSG Originals
ISBN: 0374721246
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 103

Book Description
From FSGO x Logic: a revealing examination of digital advertising and the internet's precarious foundation In Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang investigates the way big tech financializes attention. In the process, he shows us how digital advertising—the beating heart of the internet—is at risk of collapsing, and that its potential demise bears an uncanny resemblance to the housing crisis of 2008. From the unreliability of advertising numbers and the unregulated automation of advertising bidding wars, to the simple fact that online ads mostly fail to work, Hwang demonstrates that while consumers’ attention has never been more prized, the true value of that attention itself—much like subprime mortgages—is wildly misrepresented. And if online advertising goes belly-up, the internet—and its free services—will suddenly be accessible only to those who can afford it. Deeply researched, convincing, and alarming, Subprime Attention Crisis will change the way you look at the internet, and its precarious future. FSG Originals × Logic dissects the way technology functions in everyday lives. The titans of Silicon Valley, for all their utopian imaginings, never really had our best interests at heart: recent threats to democracy, truth, privacy, and safety, as a result of tech’s reckless pursuit of progress, have shown as much. We present an alternate story, one that delights in capturing technology in all its contradictions and innovation, across borders and socioeconomic divisions, from history through the future, beyond platitudes and PR hype, and past doom and gloom. Our collaboration features four brief but provocative forays into the tech industry’s many worlds, and aspires to incite fresh conversations about technology focused on nuanced and accessible explorations of the emerging tools that reorganize and redefine life today.

Paid Attention

Author: Faris Yakob
Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers
ISBN: 0749473614
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
As ever, the onus is on brands to find compelling ways to earn the attention of the consumer. Yet content scarcity has given way to overload, fixed channels have dissolved into fluid networks, and audiences have become participants in consumer-driven conversations. This shift requires a new course of action for brands; it demands new marketing imperatives. Paid Attention is a guide to modern advertising ideas: what they are, why they are evolving and how to have them. Spanning communication theory, neuroscience, creativity and innovation, media history, branding and emerging technologies, it explores the strategic creation process and how to package ideas to attract the most attention in the advertising industry. Packed with real-world examples of advertising campaigns for companies including Sony, Red Bull, HP and many more, Paid Attention provides a robust model for influencing human behaviour. Referencing a wide body of theory and praxis, from behavioural economics and sociology to technology and even science fiction, Faris Yakob maps advertising onto a wider analysis of culture. Containing practical advertising and branding templates, including a new advertising planning toolkit, it is ideal for students and practitioners looking to get noticed in today's cluttered marketplace. Online resources include additional toolkits with advice, techniques and best practice on brand behaviour, new ideas and effective communication.