The communication pandemic

Now all you do is publish your message on a blog, email it in a letter chain to every soul you know, or -increasingly-forward it instantly by phone in full colour and sound to everyone in your database.

I would be very interested to know the results of any survey on how long it takes for a message to be disseminated using these instant communication technologies. Look at the Danish controversy as an example. Every time it sort of dies down a little, someone gets inspired to send the cartoons to more people across the world, or to the same people to get them riled all over again. This issue just won't go away, and it's making Muslims live up to the stereotype that we are irrational beings quite incapable of peaceful demonstration and fruitful dialogue. This whole episode is having an incredible level of influence in politics and it demonstrates just how these new media are defining and shaping power in our world.

Then there is the Nancy Ajram episode, which I'm not at all equating in seriousness to the cartoon issue, but merely bringing it up as another interesting study in communication. Her video-and I don't mean music video-is the infamous undercover video taping of her waxing session at a salon, which is spreading at the breakneck speed of a viral pandemic. Half of the world probably knows Nancy for her music (yawn), her Coca Cola brand ambassadorship, her ads for Damas' Farfasha line, and lately… for her waxing session. My feelings for Ms Ajram aside, I do think that her privacy was violated, and it sets a scary precedent for all of us who could be taped in the privacy of our homes, hotel rooms or elsewhere, by a surreptitious phone camera… anywhere and anytime.

For researchers, it would be good to take stock of the Nancy imbroglio, and scientifically gauge the speed of the video's dissemination. Probably faster even than the cartoon issue. In Nancy's case, an unruly salon employee or patron taped the video on a mobile camera and spouted it out at the speed of …well, sight, and in the impressive way viral marketing works, this video, has infiltrated most of the Arabian Peninsula and is rapidly crossing other borders.

The lesson to learn here, folks, is that you can market anything to anyone, anywhere-and all in an instance and at the cost of practically nothing; whether it is the misadventures of a silly pop idol, or to do damage to a venerable religion. We are learning new and incredible ways of communicating. Now we have to learn how to do it with wisdom and good sense.