The Economy of Attention

The economy of money has taken over the role of politics to determine the rules of society. But since financially based prestige can be suddenly achieved and as soon lost, social appreciation increasingly derives from a scarce resource – public attention – that is harder to attain. The decision of where to invest our attention resembles financial speculation, yet the allocation of attention determines social status even more critically than the economy of money. Georg Franck's book, written in 1998 and now available in a special edition, established a new term for the developments of an epoch and has become an integral part of all discussions on politics, media and economy.