How big is your megaphone?

[Image removed]The Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is probably one of the most interesting places to visit, not only because of the beautiful (and erroneous*) ceiling, but also because of the way people act as they walk through the inside.

When you visit, you are ushered in one end of the chapel, the exit on the opposite side is pointed out to you, and then you are allowed to stand around and stare at the art as much as you would like. But there are no pictures allowed, and no talking allowed.

Naturally this doesn’t stop many people - every few seconds a telltale flash will light up one or another of the corners as an adventerous tourist forgets to turn it off. And the noise comes in cycles. Every few minutes, one of the rotating guards will yell at everyone to be quiet (in Italian and English), and the room will become almost eerily silent, and everyone will try to act as inconspicuous as possible.

But then there are a few whispers, and then people need to talk slightly louder to be heard over the whispers, and then they need to talk louder still until suddenly the room is a cacophony of noise, cameras, shouting, laughter, and everyone is trying to be noticed again. Then the guards shout.

This happens about every five to ten minutes, and it’s really fascinating.

I once mumbled to myself that “the world is a shouting match,” and at the time I was just being irritable, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. In fact, the whole world is kind of like any given ten minutes in the Sistine Chapel: a slowly escalating cacophony as everyone tries to shout a little louder than everyone else.

Things really happen based on how many people you can reach. The point of media is really just to give you a bigger megaphone than the next guy down the block; this is why every company ever is obsessed with reaching “scale.” The way I understand it, “scale” means that a company reaches so many people that it’s basically impossible for them to be ignored. Think McDonalds.

People have said that blogging changes the rules, that individuals can publish now, and the power is no longer in the hands of big media. But that’s not true — I love blogging and I’m sure I’ll keep blogging for a long time, but only a few bloggers actually have a large enough audience to count as much of an influence.

According to Fred Wilson, the New York Times leads the world news outlets with 74 Million unique visitors per month. That’s a BIG megaphone. My guess is that anything I say will get pretty easily drowned out by the NY Times. Probably anything Fred says will, too. And it’s just amazing what you can do by just being loud.

I think that’s part of what fascinates me about media and publishing. It might explain why I’ve always wanted to be part of a magazine, why I’m starting a gaming blog and e-zine, and why I keep a personal blog on top of that.

Maybe someday I’ll get a big megaphone. For now, I’ll take the one I’ve got.

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*Michaelangelo actually mixed up the chronological order of panels 3 and 4, although nobody notices.