Charisma and the Media

Abstract

The modern media, epecially film and radio, have enormously expanded the possibilities and the meaning of charisma. No sooner is a medium invented than it is used as a vehicle for charisma. The invention of cinema opened the way to Charlie Chaplin, whose film career began in 1914, shortly after the first feature film was made. By the late 1920s, radio and the newsreel coupled with commercial air travel — all newly-developed — were used with diabolical effectiveness by Hitler in his electoral campaigns (Kershaw, 1987). By the 1960s, television became a tool of charismatic, or semi-charismatic leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Charles de Gaulle.