I’ve worked in media and culture for over 20 years, and there is one thing that has fascinated and confused me more than anything else - metrics.

The way we measure audiences is absolutely critical to the billions of dollars that get spent every year making, distributing and monetising media and culture. But who decides how we measure audiences? And how do these metrics end up deciding the kind of culture we get?

I’ve been researching the history of attention metrics for over a decade, and in this newsletter I’m going to tell stories about the fascinating, odd, and hidden story of how metrics are developed. If you work in media or culture, hopefully these stories will give you a deeper understanding of the history of your industry. And a few useful pointers to possible futures…

How To Measure Ghosts is part of Diffusion Network, a new collection of podcasts and newsletters from Storythings.