What do Iran, India, and Bhutan have in common? Each of these countries has seen major changes as the result of media technology.

These changes were the focus of Pat Mitchell’s lecture “The Media Effect: The Role of Media as a Change Agent in Life, Work, and Global Relations” at the American Center at the Library of Foreign Language in Moscow on September 23. Mitchell, President and CEO of the Paley Center for Media, discussed how new technologies influence the lives of everyday people and the mass media.

“This is the most transformative technology that has ever come,” Mitchell said.

Throughout her lecture, Mitchell used examples of Twitter (a social networking service that sends updates directly to mobile phones) being used to organize political change, as in Iran, and a series of text messages that helped a trapped colleague to find her way to safety during the attack on the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai.

Mitchell also used the example of a traditional society in Bhutan that, until quite recently, had no access to mass media. After the introduction of television, their situation changed: fashion now follows global trends, anorexia appeared, and women began to work toward equality after seeing images of their counterparts from other countries.

While the lecture and following discussion identified many challenges regarding the spread of media across the world, Mitchell felt that those who want to live in a global world should have that opportunity and shouldn’t be prohibited from using media by traditionalists.

“There’s a huge opportunity with new media and technology to make a huge positive effect,” Mitchell said.

These technologies have had an enormous impact on society, but they also are changing journalism. Citizen journalists are replacing trained, major newspapers are going out of business, and surviving media outlets are catering to niche markets more and more.

“This media effect is in high gear, but it has nowhere near reached top gear,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell seemed confident that journalism would evolve to incorporate new technologies, making journalism faster, smarter, and more efficient.