Concept
Platforms do not have to suppress institutional carriers (journals, universities, depth journalism) to hollow them. Free engagement-optimized content has approximately zero marginal cost of attention because users produce it; depth content has real cost-per-impression because the institutional apparatus is paid. The attention market clears at zero price for engagement-optimized noise and infinite price for depth, so receivers — with limited attention and no quality-assessment budget — predictably pick the free option. The mechanism that produces Ch 8’s asymmetric institutional collapse without any direct attack on the institutions.
Connections
- Defined in: Political Economy of Attention
- Discussed in: Ch 12 — Infrastructure for Integration, Ch 10 — Political Economy of Attention, Ch 8 — Preservation vs. Training
- Enables: Capture asymmetry (training vs. preservation)
- Enabled by: Engagement-maximization as a captured equilibrium
This is a graph landing page. Use the local graph and backlinks (right) to explore, or open the interactive ontology.