Why a missile gets more coverage and less attention
Geopolitically framed stories light up social media and kill curiosity — the press behaves identically, the public does not.
Analysis
Articles and short papers based on the Index's data — on how public attention to shipping actually behaves, and what that means for the people whose job is to manage it. Written by Dustin Eno and guest contributors.
The framing series
Three connected articles on how the framing of a shipping story decides what the public does with it — drawn from the incident catalogue: 113 incidents, 2020 to 2026.
Drama sends people to Google. It doesn't send them to the library.
Human-drama framing triples search and buys precisely no additional public understanding. Use it for what it's actually good for.
The industry is at its most visible when it has the least to say
Across 113 incidents, the more passively coverage casts shipping, the bigger the attention and the less anybody learns from it.
Published elsewhere
The danger of stories that refuse to fade ↗
The Index has now run above its long-term average longer than ever recorded — but the story is the shape of the curve, not its length. A clean crisis spikes once and decays; a story that keeps re-spiking has someone keeping it alive.
Shipping's rare moment in the spotlight is slipping ↗
After 180 consecutive days above baseline, public attention began fading faster than the situation it was attached to — and the industry's window to make its case was closing with it.
The world is watching shipping — now what? ↗
With attention near record levels, minor incidents that would normally stay local get amplified into major coverage — and companies should communicate accordingly.
The monthly letter
Every month: a short letter from Dustin Eno on how the world is paying attention to shipping, and what it means for the people managing it. Letters are archived here.
No letters archived yet — the first goes out with the first monthly cycle.