This report explains how modern communication has reached a point where there is simply too much information to handle. This situation is described as a Crisis of Communication, caused by rapid technological growth and global pressures that change how information is made and shared (Stieglitz, Zerfass, Wloka, & Clausen, 2024).

A key problem in this crisis is Information Inflation the more content we have, the less any single piece of information seems to matter (Stieglitz et al., 2024, pp. 8–9, 28).

The report uses the Tragedy of the Commons (TOTC) as a way to understand what happens when everyone tries to get attention at once. The lecture argued that attention is a shared resource that is being overused. By reviewing lecture ideas and academic research, this report shows the risks of hypercommunication and highlights ways to communicate more responsibly.

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Theoretical Foundations

The Crisis of Communication

According to Stieglitz et al. (2024), the volume of communication is rising faster than our ability to take it in. We have more access to information than ever before, but less time and mental energy to make sense of it. As a result, communication becomes less valuable and less effective.

The Tragedy of the Commons

Hardin (1968) introduced the TOTC to describe what happens when individuals drain a shared resource by acting only in their own interest. Today, communication scholars say the same thing is happening to attention (García, 2024).

Klein (2022) explains attention as:

“the depth of thought and consideration a society can bring to bear on its most pressing problems” (para. 8)

Because attention is limited, but content is unlimited, attention becomes stretched thin and easily exhausted.
 

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Application to Strategic Communication

Attention as the Commons

Organizations — businesses, governments, nonprofits, and media — depend on public attention. They communicate constantly to stay visible. This creates what researchers call an attention economy (Falkinger, 2008; Franck, 2019, 2020, as cited in García, 2024).

García (2024) compares organizations to “shepherds” who continually release messages into the world, consuming attention “like the pasture to be eaten by the herds” (p. 102478).

Hypercommunication and Information Inflation

The lecture explained that communication today is driven by a strong push to always say more. Byung Chul-Han describes this condition clearly:

“Nobody listens. Everyone produces himself… Silence produces nothing. For this reason, capitalism does not love silence.”
 (as cited in García, 2024, p. 102478)

Technology and generative AI also make communication faster, cheaper, and easier (Stieglitz et al., 2024, pp. 8, 32). This means the amount of content produced can grow endlessly.

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Consequences of the Tragedy of the Attention Commons

Information Overload

When people face too much information, they become overwhelmed. The lecture showed that this can harm decision-making and increase stress and burnout (Stieglitz et al., 2024, pp. 36–38). Many people respond by ignoring communication entirely, such as deleting emails without reading them (Stieglitz et al., 2024, p. 39).

Degradation of the Public Sphere

Han (2022, as cited in García, 2024) argues that too much fragmented information weakens public discussion. The public sphere “disintegrates in private spaces,” and attention no longer focuses on issues “for society as a whole” (p. 102478). This reduces collective understanding and cooperation.

Extraction Rather Than Contribution

Public relations should strengthen society and build trust, according to Fully Functioning Society theory. But the lecture explained that communicators today often do the opposite. They extract attention for their own benefit:

“just the opposite of what RDT and FFS theories claim public relations should do”
 (García, 2024, p. 102478)

Threats to Content Integrity

The realism of AI-generated content makes it:

“increasingly difficult, if not impossible”
 to verify what is true
 (Stieglitz et al., 2024, p. 96)

This means trust is harder to maintain, and communication professionals must take more care with verification (Stieglitz et al., 2024, p. 115).

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Proposed Solution: An Ecology of Content

The lecture introduced an approach called an ecology of information delivery, which treats attention as a resource that must be protected (García, 2024).

This approach involves:

• Reducing “abundant, superfluous information that obscures reality” (p. 213)
 • Keeping content relevant and simple (Stieglitz et al., 2024, p. 45)
 • Reducing the overall communication burden (Stieglitz et al., 2024, p. 46)
 • Ensuring authenticity and trust

As García (2024) states:

“‘fewer public relations should be more’”
 (p. 102478, 205)

This makes responsible communication a form of corporate social responsibility and a way to preserve the public sphere.

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Conclusion

This report has shown that the Crisis of Communication is caused by the imbalance between limitless content and limited human attention. Using the Tragedy of the Commons framework helps explain why hypercommunication damages public understanding, increases mental overload, and weakens democratic processes.

The lecture emphasized that focusing on quality over quantity and treating attention with care will be key to improving communication in the future.

Where to go from here #

References #

Eppler, M. J., & Mengis, J. (2004). The concept of information overload: A review of literature from organization science, accounting, marketing, MIS, and related disciplines. The Information Society, 20(5), 325–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972240490507974

Falkinger, J. (2008). Limited attention as a scarce resource in information-rich economies. The Economic Journal, 118(532), 1596–1620. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02182.x

Franck, G. (2019). The economy of attention. Journal of Sociology, 55(1), 8–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783318811778

Franck, G. (2020). Vanity fairs: Another view of the economy of attention. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41532-7

García, C. (2024). Is public relations a Tragedy of the Commons (TOTC) for the public sphere? The need of an ecology of content. Public Relations Review, 50(4), Article 102478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2024.102478

Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162(3859), 1243–1248. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1724745

Heath, R. (2006). Onward into more fog: Thoughts on public relations’ research directions. Journal of Public Relations Research, 18(2), 93–114. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532754xjprr1802_2

Klein, E. (2022, December 11). The great delusion behind Twitter. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/opinion/what-twitter-can-learn-from-quakers.html

Stieglitz, S., Zerfass, A., Wloka, N., & Clausen, S. (2024). Communications trend radar 2024: Information inflation, AI literacy, workforce shift, content integrity & decoding humans