The most important resource
If I were to asked most people what is the most important resource in society, most people would give the name of the usual suspects. Water, air(oxygen), sunlight, money, etc. Now all those things are important but they are useless without the most important thing in society. That is attention. If you are not aware of something, your resources will not be diverted. It is very unfair but it is an important fact of life.
Let me give an example. Louisiana is badly affected by floods. The people in Louisiana are getting federal assistance to deal with it. However, most Americans are not aware of it for one reason. It is not able to get the attention of the media. To be fair to the media, the media did cover the topic but it does not get as much attention (mouse clicks or comments) as other more interesting topics. There is the Rio Olympics which covers the human interest stories. There is the Trump nomination which covers the pessimistic people world view and the conservative views.
At this point, Trump and his Vice President pick are planning to go onsite today but this after five days of inattention from all political leaders. To be fair, it was after 4 days that people were making the proper noise about the lack of attention. I believe that if the media did not bring up the issue of the lack of political attention paid to the crisis, Trump would not have gone. He was pretty quiet about the entire incident for the past few days. Trump is finally going when it is known that President Obama is not cutting his vacation short. (To make Obama and Clinton look bad in comparison)
I am not paint this picture to vilify the media or Trump. I am pointing out that if all the attention is diverted to unnecessary issues (aka Trump), real things will be left out. Reporters in Rio cannot magic themselves back to US of A. Reporters scheduled to cover the Presidential candidates and the election cannot be yanked off to cover another assignment immediately (especially if there is a chance of getting a scoop). It is likely that reporters in Louisiana were diverted to other more interesting stories or seconded to other tasks when it was clear that the flooding was not attracting enough eyeballs.
The attention span of most people is limited. Yet there are attention seeking people (aka Trump) that choose to consume all available resource. Yes, attention is a renewable resource but the fake or exaggerated issues are not going to conveniently disappear when an emergency arises. If there are too many issues, important issues may lose priority over the attention grabbing person.
I wish I could tell you the solution of dealing with such people but I would not be in my current state if I had the solution.
Let me give an example. Louisiana is badly affected by floods. The people in Louisiana are getting federal assistance to deal with it. However, most Americans are not aware of it for one reason. It is not able to get the attention of the media. To be fair to the media, the media did cover the topic but it does not get as much attention (mouse clicks or comments) as other more interesting topics. There is the Rio Olympics which covers the human interest stories. There is the Trump nomination which covers the pessimistic people world view and the conservative views.
At this point, Trump and his Vice President pick are planning to go onsite today but this after five days of inattention from all political leaders. To be fair, it was after 4 days that people were making the proper noise about the lack of attention. I believe that if the media did not bring up the issue of the lack of political attention paid to the crisis, Trump would not have gone. He was pretty quiet about the entire incident for the past few days. Trump is finally going when it is known that President Obama is not cutting his vacation short. (To make Obama and Clinton look bad in comparison)
I am not paint this picture to vilify the media or Trump. I am pointing out that if all the attention is diverted to unnecessary issues (aka Trump), real things will be left out. Reporters in Rio cannot magic themselves back to US of A. Reporters scheduled to cover the Presidential candidates and the election cannot be yanked off to cover another assignment immediately (especially if there is a chance of getting a scoop). It is likely that reporters in Louisiana were diverted to other more interesting stories or seconded to other tasks when it was clear that the flooding was not attracting enough eyeballs.
The attention span of most people is limited. Yet there are attention seeking people (aka Trump) that choose to consume all available resource. Yes, attention is a renewable resource but the fake or exaggerated issues are not going to conveniently disappear when an emergency arises. If there are too many issues, important issues may lose priority over the attention grabbing person.
I wish I could tell you the solution of dealing with such people but I would not be in my current state if I had the solution.
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