The message can no longer be controlled.
Even five years ago, it might have been possible for the Mullahs of Iran, facing rioting and protests in the streets and the potential of revolution or civil war — to institute a news black-out both within the country and to the outside world. All it would have taken would have been a shutdown of the phone system (which would have stopped the Internet as well) and the tossing out of AP, Reuters and CNN reporters. Iran would have looked like Burma/Myanmar or North Korea, and all we would have known about events there surrounding the election would have come from refugee reports and, a week from now, perhaps a few jumpy, graining amateur videos. Instead, despite the government’s crackdown on news coverage, we have been deluged with blogs, cellphone videos, Facebook entries, and Twitter tweets covering every aspect of the protest. And every attempt by the Iranian government to shut down these sources only seems to pop up even more. The Mullahs are faced with the unsolvable dilemma that in order to make Iran a regional and nuclear power they have to put in place the same sophisticated digital infrastructure that will keep Iran from ever again being a closed society. They are going to lose this fight, if not now, then soon, because their old autocratic apparatus for running the country has now proven to be incompatible with life in the 21st century
I think this is critical to understanding politics and media in this new century. I am a blogger. The original blogger was Drudge of Drudgereport fame. He posted the story about Monica Lewinsky that forever changed everything. That story had been spiked by Newsweek. That is to say they would not publish it because it would have been politically damaging to Bill Clinton: a coverup. Let’s fast forward to Dan Rather, who broadcast a story based on a fake document in order to alter the outcome of an election. Bloggers proved him to be a partisan fraud and eventually got him fired. Blogging and all the other technologies available to us have given us, the people, a voice to dispute the party line of the former monopoly media, which is in serious decline.
I honestly think that in large part the political power in this country still assumes that the message can be controlled and that they can spin anything they wish. This is a mistake, much like the Mullahs in Iran can’t comprehend what is happening to them and why they can’t control it.
To quote Glenn Reynolds, it empowers us and we can become “An Army of David’s”.
link: Edgelings.com » Opportunity’s Unexpected Turns
