From Short Waves to Flash Mobs

Beginning in the late 1980s, the widespread adoption of satellite broadcasts by news networks changed this a bit, but only if the network had sophisticated equipment based in the country and access to the event in question. When CNN beamed back live images of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and the first Gulf War in 1991, it profoundly changed the way the public, governments, the military, and the media approached global crises. Satellite broadcasting changed the relationship between media, government, and protester and made CNN the envy of its competitors. CNN?s unique ability to show what was happening in real time transformed its journalists into the arbiters of international opinion in times of crisis. Washington says Saddam has fled Baghdad? What does CNN say? Saddam claims last night?s raid killed civilians and destroyed a ?baby milk factory?? What does CNN say? They didn?t always get it right, but CNN?and later the BBC World Service, Al Jazeera, and others?changed the dynamics of international events. For those attempting to challenge a tyranny, it was essential that the images be seen via satellite.

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