Yes, well said, Russell. This idea of delineating and understanding nested levels of attention and audience can contribute to what Mcluhan called the "pragmatic purpose of trying to understand our technological environment and its psychic and social consequences..." in other words, finding audience is a practical "means of insight, of pattern recognition" and even perhaps even (who knows?) revelation.

Perhaps, as you say here, this job of fine-tuning has become more difficult. It may be helpful to remember that, as writing becomes more interactive and less authorial, readers are also challenged - they must somehow evaluate the claims embedded in enormous quantities of information, claims that emerge collaboratively as much as they are written. If this is the case, then our practice must involve frequent moves towards simplification and clarity, as you suggest, here. McCloud calls this "amplification via simplification" (Understanding Comics 30).

Mcluhan quotes taken from the Mcluhan Playboy Interview

-sync, marketing, audience - fine tuning audience recognition

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