The Medium Is The Message

Demonstrators around the world are linked these days by a curious common denominator. From Beijing to Beirut, Managua to Moscow, the placards and banners waving above the throngs are written or printed in English. The messages are as varied as the nations: WE TRUST MR. DEMOCRACY, insist the Chinese students in Tiananmen Square; THE UPRISING WILL CONTINUE UNTIL WE GET OUR RIGHT, say Palestinian youths in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; WHO IS BUSH TO TELL US WHAT TO DO? say pro-Noriega forces in Panama. During the past year, it seems, English has become the lingua franca of protest.

, The reasons have to do not only with the steady growth of English as the international language but also with the impact of television and the seeming omnipresence of the Western press. As a Chinese student at Harvard put it last week, "We are well aware of the power of the networks." Savvy demonstrators realize that English slogans will reach a much wider audience than placards written in Urdu, Hebrew or Russian script. They also know that U.S. public opinion -- and America's political leadership -- will get their message directly.