wip thoughts on attention markets, memecoins, and hyperreality (originally published February 2025)
In the early 1920s, the A.C. Nielsen Company was founded to measure sales performance in the consumer market. In the 1930s, Nielsen began tracking radio audiences, and then TV audiences in the 1950s. Nielsen ratings became the de facto standard for live TV viewership metrics. These ratings didn’t just measure audiences, they shaped the burgeoning media landscape. Ad prices, programming decision.