The Production and Consumption of Social Media / Apostolos Filippas, John J. Horton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Filippas, Apostolos.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Horton, John J.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28666.

NBER working paper series no. w28666

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

We model social media as collections of users producing and consuming content. Users value consuming content, but doing so uses up their scarce attention, and hence they prefer content produced by more able users. Users also value receiving attention, creating the incentive to attract an audience by producing valuable content, but also through attention bartering--users agree to become each others' audience. Attention bartering can profoundly affect the patterns of production and consumption on social media, explains key features of social media behavior and platform decision-making, and yields sharp predictions that are consistent with data we collect from #EconTwitter.

Notes:

Print version record

April 2021.