The explosion of information and the velocity of news that colonise our screens are as overwhelming as they and intense. Humans were never designed to process such high levels of information, nor to comprehend the complexity of numerous shifting issues. As a consequence, important issues are poorly examined and deliberate considered thought is cast aside and replaced by gut instinct and pure emotion. This emerging dynamic provides the perfect environment for the newly emerging attention economy that operates by hijacking our time and consciousness. The social impact of media saturation is proving to be wholly consequential on the way we think, the manner in which we treat information and the manner in which we interact with other people. It has also opened the flood gates for Big Tech and large media corporations to transpose their agenda onto our reality.

In itself, an algorithm does not require a complex definition as it is simply a process or set of rules that need to be followed in calculations or problem-solving. The tech-driven variety are more precisely known as machine-based algorithms. These algorithms are used to learn from data, and not from fixed rules. They are designed to recognise patterns and use them to make predictions or adjustments over time. 

Australia’s corporate owned media which is one of the most concentrated media environments in the world and other large international players use machine-based algorithms and sophisticated data collection to create a personalised experience for viewers that are highly addictive and solely aimed at capturing people’s attention. Like all corporations, the corporate owned media seeks to turn over huge profits which are fed up to their billionaire owners. To secure a steady stream of profits, contemporary media corporations heavily rely on these machine-based algorithms to capture your attention for as long as possible, regardless of the detrimental impact to human health.

Mainstream media and social media rely on machine-based algorithms to determine what each and every individual sees on a screen. They employ a number of tools and techniques to provide content curation that filters through millions of posts to build a highly personalised feed for each person. Content curation delivers each person with the news and information they want to see. That is, news and opinions with the same or similar social, political and cultural views as the viewer. Machine-based algorithms are used to learn from each person’s online habits. Known as behaviour tracking, each person’s habits are defined by their search history, pauses on videos and the content that is being skipped; all are meticulously collected and analysed to develop a profile of each user. Armed with such intimate data, machine-based algorithms employ predictive recommendations to anticipate what each viewer would like to see next. This approach helps to present alluring triggers for each individual to explore next. IT platforms have designed systems known as ‘engagement optimisation’ to maximise the time each person spends scrolling, which in turn generates higher revenue for Big Tech and corporate media giants. In effect, you have become the product since Big Tech developed sophisticated means of harvesting your attention. All this is key to the prevailing attention economy.

For centuries, information used to be a scarce commodity. Knowledge and communications were once limited giving birth to the term ‘information is king’. The revolution in communications technology is drowning the public in a digital ocean of data and information. As a consequence of the abundant supply of information, demand has turned to people’s attention.

Big Tech and media corporations acutely understand that there are a fixed number of hours in the day, and a number of competing demands on each person’s time. Cognisant of the scarcity of people’s time and attention, large media corporations have invested deeply into data collection and analysis.

The lack of regulation coupled with government inertia have allowed large corporations to harvest the public’s most intimate personal information. Lacking the most rudimentary regulatory guide rails, Big Tech’s data-tracking systems freely collect individual's internet search history, browsing habits all the way down to key strokes. Without knowledge nor consent, the attention economy has monetised colossal amounts of personal data that is sold on the digital market. This has given Big Tech unprecedented levels of power and influence both nationally and globally. Armed with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Tech is equipped with the necessary tools to influence public opinion, manipulate economic decisions and sway those in political positions of power.

Switching on our screens to soothe our minds or catch up with daily events is not an independent act. We may believe that as we scroll down the page and click on the screen is a matter of free choice. However, scrolling and clicking on news and entertainment items are not innocent acts to soothe our curiosities or pleasures, but a modern means of control. Big Tech and media corporations have been using and improving a complex set of tools to personalise and ultimately control our on-line experience.

Our individually curated digital bubble does not exist to inform, challenge nor truly entertain. Machine-based algorithms are not designed to show you the full range of available information, but carefully layout content that will engage you, enrage you and keep you clicking, scrolling and watching the screen for as long as possible. Ultimately, Big Tech and giant media corporations seek to maximise your screen addiction so they can maximise profits. To do this, they deliver content that appeals to individual biases and prejudices. They liberally use triggers to activate our emotions by amplifying extreme views and spreading misinformation. By triggering anger, fear and outrage, Big Tech and giant media corporations heighten our emotions, which in turn keeps us glued to the screen. This malign method of keeping us engaged saps our time and attention. However, the wider impact on society is emerging, and it is not pretty.

Violence, hate and outrage have fast become the drugs of choice distributed by Big Tech and mainstream media. Social media platforms are brimming with outrage. The highly effective results that are borne from triggering emotions are so great that outrage largely fuels the attention economy. The more outrage a piece of content generates, the more it is shared, amplified and the cycle continues. Machine-based algorithms are programmed to reward this behaviour in order to keep people engaged and on screens for long periods of time. Social media is particularly geared to exploit our emotional weaknesses and facilitate the sharing of explosive content. Clicking on ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ or leaving incendiary comments are further means by which social media corporations facilitate more outrage with the aim of it going viral. Machine-based algorithms prioritise content that is likely to trigger our emotions. It is little wonder that our devices generally serve up content that we are likely to agree with or to trigger our emotions and fuel more outrage. The modern media environment simply reinforces our existing beliefs and prejudices by serving up information that is aligned to our perspective. Our curated digital bubble does not seek to challenge our beliefs, nor does it seek to teach or improve our understanding of the world. It is merely an echo chamber designed to keep us comfortable and engaged by delivering endless dopamine hits in order to capture our attention for as long as possible. 

The constant inundation of information laced with hate, violence and fear may well fuel the furnace of the attention economy. However, the endless emotional assault leads to widespread stress, anxiety and depression. It polarises society by upturning informed sources and replacing them with propaganda and conspiracy theories. Through the manipulative use of outrage, the modern media landscape is fast-tracking the erosion of our ability to think critically, work cooperatively and imagine a better future. 

By undermining our capacity to think critically and drip-feeding news that is inflammatory and divisive, social cohesion in being weakened and our communities are becoming polarised. The modern media landscape is dominated by the billionaire owned media along with IT platforms. They mediate the message by manipulating our behaviour and filtering our perception of the world. Armed with machine-based algorithms, AI, and decades of our most intimate details, Big Tech and giant media companies are able to mould reality by delivering a narrative that colonises our screens. Corporate media and Big Tech set the agenda by amplifying issues that suit their social, political and cultural program. Conversely, they omit key issues that they deem controversial or counter-productive to their world view. Known as hyperrealism, the corporate owned media, Big Tech and the government-controlled media create issues and conflate events beyond their merit thereby making them larger than life in the public eye. Hyperreality also helps to keep issues burning in the public’s mind long after their used by date. Alternatively, matters of public interest may be omitted or drowned out by hyped-up issues to serve the dominant narrative. The use of outrage, fear, prejudice and disaster are key instruments in the application of hyperreality. The ongoing amplification of antisemitism in Australian society has coincided with the muffling of calls to bring the Israeli government to justice over the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. The dialling up of the threat from China has helped to moderate the public’s attention away from the hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds sunk into submarines that may never be delivered, or the millions being squandered on military facilities across Australia that are effectively controlled by foreign powers. Hyperreality is being employed by the US administration to keep the US public mystified, whilst the Australian government uses it to soften the public’s view on US and Israeli aggression and war crimes. 

Through hyperreality, the use of selective outrage and the inundation of news and opinion, the corporate owned media, social media and IT platforms are able to keep the public divided, bewildered and uncritical. The hijacking of people’s attention invariably is a one-way street that generates profits for billionaires whilst draining our time, focus and dulling our consciousness. It is little wonder that an innocent look at the screen plunges us into a giant labyrinth that saps hours of our time leaving one feeling angry, disconnected, fatigued, stressed and overwhelmed. Unfortunately, this scenario is a daily reality giving rise to a toxic environment that keeps the public overloaded, overwhelmed and off balance. A weak and divided population is less likely to ask questions, engage in dialogue, work cooperatively, and critically assess the root cause of our nation’s most pressing problems. 

Read PIBCI Perspective: To fix or not to fix, that is the question

We are at a point in history where we can communicate to greater numbers of people than ever before. We also have more access to information than at any other point in history. Despite the quantum leaps in communications and technology, we are becoming less cable of reasoning, thinking critically and distinguishing truth from illusion. Our world may be more connected than ever before, yet we have become more disconnected from reality. 

Behind the systemic changes are Big Tech and the corporate owned media who have initiated the silent intellectual decay across society. The deluge of information that greets us every day causes us to feel informed as we scroll through social media, videos and newsfeeds. However, the cursory overviews and the sharp visual summaries provide for intellectual short cuts that replace independent research, considered thought, deep reflection and well-defined ideas. The news summaries that colonise our screens are conveniently curated for us, thereby limiting our ability to independently think. The rapid-fire news and views that pump us full of outrage fracture our focus and usurp our attention. Each mouse click and every scroll is designed to erode our ability to sustain focus. Holding on to an idea and keeping focused on a single concept is becoming more difficult as we surf the digital ocean, check our mobile phones and dart from one video to another. Our attention is being plundered, and our intelligence is being undermined by IT platforms that reward shallow engagement. 

Critical thinking, self-education and limiting exposure to the dominant narrative are essential approaches which can help us see through the manufactured reality that props up the status quo. Establishing daily routines that sharpen the mind, engaging in local collective actions and fighting the daily onslaught of distractions are essential to improving our outlook on the world. Despite the endless doom and gloom served up on our screens, there is a broad spectrum of community projects, local art cooperatives, social centres, and both alternative and independent media initiatives that provide opportunities for us to support progressive politics, and help steer culture away from mindless conflict and consumption. It is vital that we guide our focus and protect our attention from the myriad of digital infinity pools that seek to entrap our time, energy and consciousness. 

Being mindful of your digital choices, and working to create possibilities for critical thinking, social development and progress need to be at everyone’s forefront if we are to successfully shape our collective future, and recognise our reality by rejecting theirs. 

Dare to resist by rejecting the dominant narrative and join PIBCI today. 

September 2026