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If McLuhan was right and the medium is in fact the message, to what extent do the masters of the media control the message they convey? In other words, how much power do eRepublik’s most prominent writers hold? One way to elucidate this potency of the literary class in eRepublik is to examine the nature of the mechanisms of eRep media, and also to examine the societal impact of its most significant articles.

Mechanisms of the Media in eRepublik
How might the nature of eRepublik’s media module effect the pull that journalists possess? For starters, the media in eRepublik lacks a dependable and consistent reader base. Unlike real life newspapers where it is guaranteed that a certain number of issues will be printed and delivered, the same can not be said for our Erepublik counterpart. Granted, there are subscribers, but it’s a safe bet to concede that only a small portion of ecitizens keep track of their subscribed papers on a regular basis. Without this dependable readership base, the eRep media mogul is dependent almost entirely on the lure of his or her article: catchiness is the key. An enticing or controversial title has as much or more to do with the popularity of the article as the content itself. In this way, much of the power of media in eRepublik lies not in outstanding journalistic content, but in an ingrained and instinctual affinity in the writer with what literary techniques will best attract readership.

Evidence of Powerful Impacts in the Media
Canadian Baby Boom - Joey Phillip’s short Baby-Boom article unwittingly inspired the name of a generation of eCanadians.
Nave Sends 20,000 Bodybags to Canada: State of the Union Address a 30 Minute Stream of Profanity - Adam Sutler’s brilliant and hilarious satire on the American failure of the War of Nave’s Toe solidified Canadian resolve against the invasion.
The Hungarian Political Takeover of Canada and the Curse of the BQ - Augustus Baldwin’s fierce response to the onset of Hungarian voters sparked a national emergency.
Breaking News - Zanalan is Not Real - Another Baldwin article shows what happens when a piece of journalism backfires. This satire was award winning and very funny, but was injuriously received by the politically inclined community and arguably catalyzed Baldwin’s departure from the political arena.

Media magnates can coin new terms, sway national morale, spark hysteria, and change the direction of an entire election, among other things. For this reason, the conspicuous conclusion from these observations is that there is significant power in eRepublikan media, but its utility lies in entirely different avenues from that of real-life journalism.