Maybe attention seeker grabs thing valued — active control (8)
I believe the answer is:
hegemony
'control' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'maybe attention seeker grabs thing valued active' is the wordplay.
'maybe attention seeker' becomes 'hey' (word that can be used to get someone's attention).
'grabs' indicates putting letters inside.
'thing valued' becomes 'gem'.
'active' becomes 'on' (I've seen this in other clues).
'gem'+'on'='gemon'
'hey' enclosing 'gemon' is 'HEGEMONY'.
(Other definitions for hegemony that I've seen before include "Leadership, superior influence" , "Leadership as by one country" , "Preponderant influence" , "Dominant position" , "Dominance of one state over another" .)