America's short attention span

America's short attention span strikes again: A study of New York Times coverage shows that the press loves to cover a natural disaster. For about a week

Excerpts:

"American public attention rarely remains sharply focused on any one domestic issue for very long -- even if it involves a continuing problem of crucial importance to society." So wrote the economist Anthony Downs in 1972. He described the "issue-attention cycle": "Each of these problems suddenly leaps into prominence, remains there for a short time and then -- though still largely unresolved -- gradually fades from the center of public attention."

Three months after the earthquake in Haiti, it is clear that it's not only domestic problems that receive this kind of attention. Indeed, a comparison of New York Times stories about three recent natural disasters -- Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, and the earthquake in Haiti -- shows that the issue-attention cycle characterizes news coverage of each.

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... natural disasters are by their nature sudden, but the problems they illuminate -- vulnerable levees, dire poverty, weak political institutions -- are chronic. The Onion’s headline about Haiti was fitting: "Massive Earthquake Reveals Entire Island Civilization Called 'Haiti.'"

"Euphoric enthusiasm" ensues, as citizens and governments muster aid. But as the "cost of significant progress" becomes clear, few people or leaders are willing to make the necessary sacrifices. There is a "gradual decline of intense public interest" -- perhaps not even gradual in these cases. And the news knows it. Not two weeks after the earthquake, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta told the New York Times: "We all know what’s going to happen. People are just going to lose interest in this as a story. They’re going to stop watching."

News coverage can even help assuage people's guilt. Two weeks after the disaster, the New York Times saw "signs of revival in Haiti.” Seven weeks after that, the Dallas Morning News found "signs of normal life." Such signs may be real, but these sorts of stories aren't likely to sustain the public's interest.

Comment: It happens in business and churches too. Some issue is a crisis and their is great focus on it .... until the next crisis