Iranian Social Media Revolution

The Iranian post election protests continue. Supporters of Iran’s defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi have held another big rally in northern Tehran. Hours before, thousands of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s supporters staged their own protest in the city center.

Tough new restrictions have been imposed on foreign media reporting, but that hasn’t stopped images from being captured on mobile phones and published on sites like YouTube or photos showing up on Flickr or an ongoing stream of updates on Twitter through a common hash tag #Iranvote.

You might be wondering why is this story on The Rancho Cordova Post. I decided to publish this story because for the first time we are eye witnessing a revolution in progress like never before. The power of social media and citizen journalism is showing us a natioanl revolution first hand.

Think Tienamen Square and the students protesting oppresive government in China. Much of the video footage and photos are produced by amateurs. The mainstream media has done an excellent job of taking these images and adding in depth reporting adding a layer of credibility and wise editorial.

Never before has the world seen, heard, and read so much content during an uprising such as this in Iran. The power of the Internet to allow anyone to create and share content has fueled this revolution in Iran like no other event we have seen to date. There are Iranian protesters tweeting and facebooking every moment of this international event.

When I lived in Germany for 3 years I found that the BBC had some of the best international coverage because they were unbiased in their reporting and U.S. news media often put an Americentric spin on their stories.The following link is to a video posted on the BBC website and was shot by an amatuer.

This video is dark and difficult to see what is happening, but is a good example of how one Iranian captured the secret police raids on college dormitories across Iran Tuesday night. There is much more coverage on many of the sites mentioned. This is a monumental event in my mind and one we’ll actually be able to watch unfold right before our eyes.

Similar Posts:

None Found

Short URL: http://www.ranchocordovapost.com/?p=3898

Posted by Geoffrey Sakala on Jun 17 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.