People sometimes call this the age of the "attention economy" - where everyone is fighting for our limited attention spans. I think there's another way to look at how we pay attention to politics.
I like to call this the “drama economy” - where drama dictates how we see and understand our world. Where our worth is sometimes determined by how much drama we can create.
Let me explain what I mean. For a decade, I logged on to Twitter multiple times a day to read the news. But you can't just read about policy and events every day, because that eventually becomes boring. Most of our attention and time is actually consumed by drama.
Who said something controversial?
Who said something I liked?
What is there to get angry about today?
Ooh, isn't that heartwarming?
I call this drama because every drama needs a “narrative”, a goody and a baddy. And the most successful drama engages with our emotions. Of course, we are engaging with policies and world events through this drama, but it’s still a drama. And everytime we log on to social media, we act like lab rats looking for our next dopamine hit - the next episode of the drama. And so if something fits our drama storyline, and evokes emotion, we get a dopamine hit. And if enough people get that hit, it goes viral. Anything that doesn't, sinks.
Nothing is new or controversial about this.
Journalists have to play a role in this drama too. Across my industry, we write headlines that will evoke emotions, or present stories in a way that fits the narrative. Otherwise no one will click it and read you! And then you have no job. In the drama economy, it doesn't matter if you get things wrong or people make fun of you - if you're in the middle of the drama then all eyes are on you and you are creating value. You can grab attention and sell ads.
In this world, which existed before Twitter but has gotten more reinforced since, politicians who can create drama (Trump, Johnson), or respond well to it through their charisma (Blair, Obama) - get all the attention and can use it to win.
This is also why I think Keir Starmer is badly struggling.
He cannot create drama, he cannot respond to it either. He wants to be the "no drama" candidate but to the point of being boring. Obama didn't create drama but he wasn't boring to watch.
Our politics and our financial futures are debated through drama.
You might think this is a bad thing. I believe it is what it is. We simply cannot sustain our interest in politics 24-7 without lots of drama.
But I do think it also means that ideas, debates or articles that are too nuanced get ignored. Everything has to be black or white to grab attention.
Politicians have to be charismatic or interesting. Pretending otherwise is a sure way to lose.
People who can create drama around their platforms or ideas for better than those who cannot.
The drama economy has taken over our lives. There’s no point denying otherwise.