From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon 03 Mar 2003 - 04:09:48 GMT
>From: "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
>Subject: RE: Word-use spikes
>Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2003 14:59:58 -0500
>
>The issue, I think, will come down to whether 'attention' to something is
>equivalent to a decision to act on the thing. That is, the grotesque levels
>of attention paid to non-factors, such as weather, sports and pop
>celebrities, may have little bearing on how people behave and be of little
>predictive help. (I was in Europe and Asia during the beginning of the
>world
>cricket competition, and was stunned to see the level of attention that it
>commanded everywhere. It makes the US Super Bowl look trivial.)
>
Pop celebrities and sports are not very important overall beyond
entertainment value to the individuals who follow that sort of thing
religiously. I managed to miss ALL the recent interviews with Michael
Jackson and I kinda feel like having a T-shirt made that asserts this fact.
I have slacked off on watching sports.
I might take minor exception to your trivialization of weather. Unlike
celebrity gossip in the supermarket tabloids and the latest gambling line on
upcoming sports matchups, weather can be a VERY important matter, as in LIFE
and DEATH. Maybe checking to see if there's going to be a drizzle during the
day you want to play golf or plan an outing with the family isn't all that
big a deal in the scope of things. If you happen to live in areas affected
by hurricanes, typhoons, or tornados you might want to make sure you know
when you've got a severe weather system bearing down on your area in the
near future. Early detection of a tornado signature might help someone
decide to seek shelter underground, if they've got a tornado shelter in
their backyard. Tracking the development of tropical systems as they grow
towards hurricane status is a very important matter in areas which are
potential targets. Granted the news media loves to play on our fears and
puch those danger buttons when hurricane season rolls around, but these
storms are no trivial matter. Having a catgory 3 through 5 storm heading
your way is a tad less trivial than a summer afternoon thunderstorm, though
the latter can get ugly sometimes. Hail and tornado developments are a
possibility.
>
>Cheers,
>Lawry
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> > Of Alan Patrick
> > Sent: Sun, March 02, 2003 4:09 PM
> > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> > Subject: Re: Word-use spikes
> >
> >
> >
> > > Leaving aside the unfortunate degeneration of language (not
> > that that is a
> > > new phenomenon!), and leaving aside 'celebrity'-based fads, I wonder
> > whether
> > > word-spike studies might not have a serious purpose, indicating
> > trends in
> > > the adoption of ideas or preoccupation with them. One could
> > conceive that
> > > such spikes indicate shifts of attention.
> >
> > This technique is already used by various future-prediction
> > outfits as a way
> > of picking up tipping points/new trends, as well as similar counts such
>as
> > no. of column inches on various subjects. I don't know how good a
> > predictor
> > it has proven to be before an event though, as it is not clear to
> > me whether
> > "the media" (ie financed, edited media) is a leading indicator, but I
>can
> > see how analysing Google searches or Blogs or suchlike (ie any unedited
> > medium) could be more interesting.
> >
> > Rgds
> >
> > Alan
> >
> >
> > ===============================================================
> > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
> >
>
>
>===============================================================
>This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
>Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
>For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
>see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
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This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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