Two Media Revolutions Transform the World

America’s Right Turn
by Richard Viguerie and David Franke (2004)

Part 1: Two Media Revolutions Transform the World

Chapter 1. The Media Revolution of 1517

Lessons learned from Lutheran-Catholic battles of the early Reformation:

* It is important to be first.
* Aim for the mass audience
* The owner of the communications technology is the gatekeeper.
* Printers developed an array of promotional techniques, promoting themselves first and also “contributing to the celebration of lay culture--heroes and to their achievement of personal celebrity and eponymous fame.” The printer was in business to make money [communications industry; free market]

“The Catholic Church was the establishment of Europe in 1517. It saw itself as the only legitimate religious institution, and since it possessed juridical power it was accustomed to relying on intervention by secular authorities to suppress rebellions…”

“…inherent advantage of the new [movement] over the old: All the flaws of the new are not yet obvious.” [e.g., Mao in China]

“It [the Protestant Reformation] was a media war between two establishments, with the masses generally accepting the dictates and shifting allegiances of the kings and princes and priest-hoods that wielded local power over them.”

Lutheran Reformers, in aiming for the mass audience:

* Reached the literate in the common language (German rather than Latin)
* Reached the “opinion makers” (in print) and got them to persuade the general population (through oral persuasion and sermons)

Chapter 2. The Media Revolution of 1776

"In the beginning America was just an extension of the Old World idea that establishments whether Puritan, Anglican, or agents of the British crown set the rules, usually under the pretense of divine right."

"The Old World system stayed intact for a while as long as there were only a few printing presses around, and the market for printed goods remained small and consisted mostly of members of the ruling establishment."

In America: there is a tradition of "a winning combination of entertainment and political controversy." [see chapter 14: "conservative stars like Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and Hannity are entertainers who just happen to be conservative, not conservatives who are trying to be entertaining."]

The Pamphlet: Orwell said: "Above all, the pamphlet does not have to follow any prescribed pattern. It can be in prose or in verse, it can consist largely of maps or statistics or quotations, it can take the form of a story, a fable, a letter, an essay, a dialogue, or a piece of 'reportage.' All that is required is that it shall be topical, polemic, and short."

Chapter 3. The Recipe for Creating a New Mass Movement

* Issues that motivate
* A dedicated vanguard working consistently
* Self-identification as a movement [or as a group] with a mission
* Communication networks (sometimes including a "secret" media weapon). Pulpits of dissemination and an understanding of the new technology and its products, and the will to use it.
* Money to fund the revolution
* A vulnerable establishment. "Often most fatal is the conceit to which power holders fall victim that they deserve to be in power perhaps even by divine will and therefore will remain in power, tomorrow as today." "A reliance upon authority, not persuasion, to maintain the status quo."

The establishment reacts to protest by first seeking "to ignore…, then to ridicule…, then to suppress…, while refusing to utilize the new media weapon until it was too late."