Students in Dr. Nicole Pfannenstiel’s summer 2025 writing seminar crafted blog posts exploring Rhetoric & Composition. Over the next several weeks, we will share their work in this space to bring visibility to their posts and offer a variety of perspectives on pertinent topics within Rhetoric & Composition. These posts are written by graduate students currently in the MA and M.Ed. English programs.
Rhetoric and the Attention Economy
By: John Leininger
By the end of 8th grade, most children have been introduced to the concept of ‘rhetoric,’ usually packaged as ethos, pathos, and logos – three ‘mind tricks’ for persuading an audience to agree with you. Aristotle presented these in the 4th century B.C., and they are still taught, though while the mind has not changed in the intervening two thousand years, the concept of ‘audience’ has. Gone are the assemblies of concerned citizens gathered to hear different points of view and be persuaded on a course of action. The internet, specifically the mass availability of information, has created what is termed “the economics of attention” (Andrews 27), where “the glut of information has generated intense competition for people’s attention” (Menczer), meaning that rhetoric is no longer just about persuading people to believe you, but simply to pay attention long enough to hear your ideas.
In this economy, the greatest resource is not public opinion, as in the traditional rhetorical situation, but public attention, and according to Richard Andrews, every choice in the construction of information is now rhetorical, made to convince the public to ‘spend’ their limited attention on what you, out of the millions of available sources, have to say (27). This also means that the rhetorical ‘opponent’ has switched since ancient times from the opposing viewpoint to all other sources of communication (28). No longer is it sufficient to understand the counterarguments of your own position, but also the online algorithms and the methods of attention-grabbing available to other, completely unrelated communicators. The rhetorical audience is every internet user, and the rhetorical situation is the planet, and every decision has rhetorical ramifications as people swipe, click, and zone out a thousand times every day.
This does not mean strong arguments and good information are no longer part of modern rhetoric; there is no reason (outside datamining) to grab attention unless you have something to say, but “the surplus of information at any one person’s disposal is never ending,” so “what is scarce and valuable are time” (“Ideology in the…” 1). It doesn’t matter how good your argument is if people cannot be bothered to read it.
When time is limited, persuasion to listen can often equal agreement, because “what is relevant is information that individuals, groups, organizations, and networks deem valuable and to which they pay attention” (“Ideology in the…” 2). These valuations of information take place before the information is consumed. Therefore, ethos, pathos, and logos can no longer be relegated to the internals of content but must be pushed to the forefront, making the information seem valuable and worthy of attention.
This new sense of audience and rise of the “economics of attention” has shifted the study of rhetoric from public agreement to individual focus, from decisions of internal arguments to those of external attention grabbing. Writers must realize that well-worded appeals are not sufficient, and readers must recognize that the information that grabs their attention is not necessarily the most truthful or the most important.
Further Reading
Andrews, Richard. “Why Rhetoric?” A Theory of Contemporary Rhetoric. Routledge, 2014. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=3cd4a042-37c3-32ac-8333-529d3b1c2bec.
Ehret, Christian. “Critical Literacies in Algorithmic Cultures.” Literacy, vol. 58, no. 2, May 2024, pp. 157–66. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12363.
“Ideology in the Attention Economy: A Portal to the Post-Truth Era.” Journal of Ideology, vol. 42, no. 1, Jan. 2023, pp. 1–22. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=237d40d6-4670-3436-be6f-4a54325ed04e.
Menczer, Filippo, and Thomas Hills. “The Attention Economy.” Scientific American, vol. 323, no. 6, Dec. 2020, pp. 54–61. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=3fbde686-8338-395e-958e-0024144b29f2.
Tanner, Simon. “Finding value and impact in an attention economy.” Delivering Impact with Digital Resources : Planning Your Strategy in the Attention Economy. Facet Publishing, 2019. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=e42a15f3-f978-32fc-8b80-9f67d89f39f8.