The attention economy: image or immolation?

In a world of data smog it’s clear that gaining attention is becoming a major concern for business, politicians, charities and even academics. You can find an interesting review of Richard Lanham’s book “The Economy of Attention” at: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_11/goldhaber/index.html. You might want to think about your attention and how it gets captured before you do a search on Malachi Richster. He set fire to himself in Chicago earlier this month as a protest against the war in Iraq. Wikipedia claims he gained notoriety for this but I question this. Did that news filter through to you? Should it have? Coverage seems more prolific in the blogosphere but one might feel that an event such as this, whether you think him a martyr or a madman, warrants more of our attention than what passes for news daily on all major channels. As Goldharber says in his review of Lanham’s book, a new kind of economy will require a somewhat new kind of economics, and the argument is just what this will be. Sadly, it seems while we are waiting to find out, it may already be decided for us, only not just by economists.