The issue-attention-cycle is a challenge known to every activist since the Greek women withheld sex in their effort to end the Peloponnesian War in Aristophanes' comedy Lysistrata, 2500 years ago. Reading the stories wrapped in the post immediately below, "Bill Gates Says Climate Change ‘Will Not Lead to Humanity’s Demise’" (calls for 'strategic pivot' in climate change fight away from curbing emissions)" it seems a part of Mr. Gates' changing view is the issue-attention-cycle.
Not every cause that can supply the moral certainty of the British slavery abolition movement under Wilberforce or the American mirror some years later that kept the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing Society going for the decades that it took to effect change.
Which is where the trio in our headline come in. Last reposted in October 2024's ""Why many Poles are not as supportive of Ukraine’s war effort as their leaders in Warsaw":There are a few things going on here, we'll have more after the jump....
....Which of course reminded me of something, in this case Churchill's comment that "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
Which led to the memory of Anthony Downs’ groundbreaking 1972 paper on communicating in general and issue-oriented communication in particular: "Up and Down with Ecology: The 'Issue-Attention' Cycle"
"American public attention rarely remains sharply focused upon any one domestic issue for very long - even if it involves a continuing problem of crucial importance to society. Instead, a systematic 'issue-attention cycle' seems strongly to influence public attitudes and behavior concerning most key domestic problems. 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. A study of the way this cycle operates provides in-sights into whether public attention is likely to remain sufficiently focused upon any given issue to generate enough political pressure to cause effective change"
- Pre-problem : A problem exists, but only some experts and interest groups are alarmed.
- Discovery and Enthusiasm : There is alarm and concern over a discovered environmental problem. People band together to support a solution and attack the problem.
- Realization : The public starts to understand the cost and difficulty of making progress on the issue.
- Decline in Interest : Because of this realization, there is a decline in public interest (and therefore media attention).
- Post-problem : The issue isn’t resolved but there is less attention on it. However, the overall level of interest is higher than when the problem was discovered. This may result in small recurrences of interest.”
....MUCH MORE
And the original meaning of 'semantic satiation'?
Semantic satiation is a phenomenon whereby the uninterrupted repetition of a word eventually leads to a sense that the word has lost its meaning. This effect is also known as semantic saturation or verbal satiation.
The concept of semantic satiation was described by E. Severance and M.F. Washburn in The American Journal of Psychology in 1907. The term was introduced by psychologists Leon James and Wallace E. Lambert in the article "Semantic Satiation Among Bilinguals" in the Journal of Experimental Psychology (1961)....MORE at ThoughtCo
So two rules: 1) Don't bore your audience; 2) Don't drone on and on to the point that people no longer hear or care what you are trying to express.
There are very few exceptions to the rules, perhaps just salmon and Svalbard.
