The first media mogul…
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni understood mass media.
While he was still an exile in Paris he began to smuggle audio casettes into the Shah’s Iran.
On the tapes, which became wildly popular, he cast the Shah as Yazid, the evil general from Damascus who had killed Hassan and Hussein at Karballah. (For those unfamiliar with Shia history, we’ll save this for another day). Suffice it to say that it was, as I said, wildly popular both as politics and as entertainment.
Khomeini understood the cutting edge technology of the day – the Sony Walkman.
Were Khomeini undermining the regime of the Shah today, he would be putting video on the web.
In every generation, when political change was in the winds, those who understood new technology triumphed.
Both Hitler and Roosevelt understood radio long before any other politicians, and both rose to power on the airwaves, sending their voice to millions at a time.
Political movements + new technology is a powerful tool, particularly for those who get there first.
Last week in Prague, at Radio Free Europe, we empowered a dozen journalists who have the courage to take on their own governments (in places where that kind of action can get you killed). We taught them to pick up a video camera, tell their stories in the most powerful medium of our time, and upload it to the web.
It is not only the Khomeinis of the world who can embrace the new technology.
It is also these people:
