When Attention Went on Sale — with Tim Wu

An information system that relies on advertising was not born
with the Internet. But social media platforms have taken it to an
entirely new level, becoming a major force in how we make sense
of ourselves and the world around us. Columbia law professor Tim
Wu, author of The Attention Merchants and The Curse of Bigness,
takes us through the birth of the eyeball-centric news model and
ensuing boom of yellow journalism, to the backlash that rallied
journalists and citizens around creating industry ethics and
standards. Throughout the 20th century, radio, television, and
even posters elicited excitement, hope, fear, skepticism and
greed, and people worked together to create a patchwork of
regulation and behavior that attempted to point those tools in
the direction of good. The Internet has brought us to just such a
crossroads again, but this time with global consequences that are
truly life-and-death.