Another idea highlighted in the Lankshear and Knobel book I have been reading is that of "structures of attention," which is originally from Lanham's speech on the attention economy.

The idea is that in an attention economy, where scarcity lies in human attention rather than material goods, attention structures frame and focus attention so that participants in the economy are not overwhelmed by the torrent of information. L & K do a good job of describing how Amazon, eBay, Plastic, online banking outfits and other players make good use of attention structures.

What I have *not* heard them talk about is attention structures which are having a harmful effect on people's understanding of the world around them -- a topic which, if the new literacies folk cross-pollinated with media critics or departments of communication more often, might prove fertile. I'd put many of the tricks of the public relations and advertising trades in this category. For example: talking points. You know who's doing a sledgehammer analysis of this particular attention structure? Jon Stewart, that's who. (Yes, that is a RealPlayer link. Do it because you love me.)

Maybe you don't want to consider talking points on their own as attention structures, fine by me. But when, as Stewart demonstrates, they're repeated across dozens of news shows?...

So attention structures can be used for good as well as evil. What are the ramifications for teaching literacy?

(Gus is frantically waving her hand in the air in the back of the class, but, tragically, the teacher's attention is elsewhere.)