[Air-l] Air-list

[mark andrejevic]

The recent activity on the list has scotched my tendency to be lazy 
about filtering. I just want to re-emphasize Christian's observation: 
attention is like oxygen for trollers. Without it, they disappear -- 
migrating off to some other locale where they can find an 
attention-rich environment, sometimes with a few nasty last-ditch 
spasms of provocation.

It was nice to see the list carry on, largely oblivious to the 
trolling, for some time on some very interesting topics. The critical 
mass seems to have shifted and it would be nice to see it shift back.

Is anybody following Mark Burnett's latest cross-platfrom marketing 
extravaganza: his attempt to enlist the internet as a strategy for 
getting people to watch TV more closely? It's fascinating in a 
disconcerting way to see the combined attempts of the regulatory 
institutions and the cultural institutions piecing together their 
strategy for commodification. This from the chief "creative" director 
of AOL: "The game vivifies the entire value of the Web...The pop 
culture orientation ties in two of the biggest behaviors that drive 
the Web: gaming and interest in celebrities."

A familiar conception of value...

for what it's worth,
Mark