The Attention Economy and Steering Audiences Toward Digital Content Consumption: Opportunities, Risks, and Protection Mechanisms

This study investigates the relationship between the concept of the attention economy and the steering of Egyptian audiences toward consuming specific digital content via social media platforms. It does so through an evaluative examination of opportunities and risks, and by proposing a set of response mechanisms from the perspective of elites. Data were collected through semi-structured scholarly interviews with a sample of academic and professional media elites who maintain an active presence in digital public debate, alongside an online questionnaire administered to a sample of social media users. The findings indicate that while users view algorithms as the only factor influencing the consumption of particular digital content, media elites argue that this phenomenon results from a complex interaction among three key elements: algorithms, user behavior, and platforms’ commercial policies. The most significant risks include the emergence of filter bubbles that limit individuals’ exposure to diverse viewpoints, thereby narrowing their intellectual horizons, as well as algorithmic non-neutrality, given that algorithms are designed to maximize clicks in ways that serve the interests of specific institutions and entities, which in turn intensifies polarization and division.