IT IS a familiar-sounding tale: after decades of simmering discontent
a new form of media gives opponents of an authoritarian regime a way to
express their views, register their solidarity and co-ordinate their
actions. The protesters’ message spreads virally through social
networks, making it impossible to suppress and highlighting the extent
of public support for revolution. The combination of improved publishing
technology and social networks is a catalyst for social change where
previous efforts had failed.
That’s what happened in the Arab spring. It’s also what happened
during the Reformation, nearly 500 years ago, when Martin Luther and
his allies took the new media of their day—pamphlets, ballads and
woodcuts—and circulated them through social networks to promote their
message of religious reform.
Scholars have long debated the relative importance of printed media,
oral transmission and images in rallying popular support for the
Reformation. Some have championed the central role of printing, a
relatively new technology at the time. Opponents of this view emphasise
the importance of preaching and other forms of oral transmission. More
recently historians have highlighted the role of media as a means of
social signalling and co-ordinating public opinion in the Reformation.
Now the internet offers a new perspective on this long-running
debate, namely that the important factor was not the printing press
itself (which had been around since the 1450s), but the wider system of
media sharing along social networks—what is called “social media” today.
Luther, like the Arab revolutionaries, grasped the dynamics of this new
media environment very quickly, and saw how it could spread his
message. Keep Reading >>>
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