We should replace the Overton window metaphor with a gravity assist metaphor.
Overton window = passive tv audience waiting for issues to enter a window
Gravity assist window = while an issue has media attention, it’s trajectory will bend
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For example, Covid and Ukraine are both still in the Overton window but have exited the gravity assist window
So both are part of the media frame but not the media action
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The Overton window implies awareness, literacy, and interested stake, but not actual agency. Once media got social, it could bend discourses in ways that were simply not possible in trad media era.
