The Revolution Is Not Being Televised
At the risk of stating the obvious: print media is dead, and broadcast journalism may have suffered a deathblow.
It's been a rough two weeks for MSM. Iran is revolting its stolen election and defying its dictator for the first time in 30 years. I know this because I use the internet, and not because I read the newspaper (sadly, I don't anymore) or because I watch broadcast news (gag me). Throughout the past week, while traversing through rumors, journalism, heresy, and first-person accounts, I kept an eye on the internet's own revolt (further) against traditional media.
While internet communities - which include Iranians - were sharing information in real-time, some broadcast media essentially went dark on the protests for days. As much as of a love-hate relationship I've got going with Twitter right now, I can at least say honestly that it brought me real news faster than the boob tube. The whole thing is laughable, but also pretty sad.
It's true that social networking services like Twitter have no verification. You have to take every individual #iran tweet with a grain of salt. But because Iran has the kind of government it does, there would obviously be no foreign journalists with a camera anywhere within its borders this week. In 2003, Salam Pax blogged from Baghdad while the bombs fell. The difference then being there were also correspondents on the ground, reporting live for broadcast. Six years (and two presidential elections) later, it appears the scales have tipped well in the internet's favor.
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Over the weekend, the lady and I were out of town for a wedding. When we checked into the hotel, the TV in the lobby had on cable news, which was covering the Iranian protests. As soon as we settled in our room, I put on the same.
At the same time, I turned on my iPhone and loaded my Twitter application. The cable news station had cameras shooting computer monitors (at bad angles) displaying Twitter. On my phone, I was in Twitter - which is to say, I was reading it firsthand, as well as participating in the conversation.
On TV, I saw melodramatic journalist-personalities ("journalisties"?) embellish unnewsworthy tweets, such as "If an innocent girl gets shot halfway across the world, does she make a sound? Yes, the whole world hears her." While in Twitter itself, I skimmed past the same updates and read dozens of other more meaningful notes.
On TV, I saw commercial breaks. In Twitter, the news never stopped (surprisingly great uptime this weekend).
On TV, I heard anchors repeat themselves every few minutes. In Twitter, I saw heavy retweeting - fast-growing groups of different people rallying around information together, not a one-way, aimless talking head.
When cable news finally decided to take a full break and let the news catch up to them, they spent 30 minutes recapping a news topic Americans hold dear: international soccer. This news organization was very obviously - and, to their credit, transparently - trying to play catch-up with the internet. But they've all swung the pendulum so far in the other direction, they're now also trying to play make-up.
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I don't usually advocate token charity gestures online, but if you're on Twitter, there are two very easy things you can do to really support protesting Iranians.
First, change your Twitter account settings to Tehran time. If true, the rumors of Iranian Twitter crackdown means the more people posing as Iranians in Twitter, the harder it will be for them to silence real tweetin' Iranians. It might all be bunk, but it doesn't hurt and it takes about 7 seconds.
Secondly, change your Twitter profile picture to a shade of green. I used Photoshop, but you can use this nifty site to do it all online, or just pick a new one from this collection. It's the color of the opposing party, and it shows any Iranian on Twitter that you're listening and they have your support, wherever and whoever you are. If Alyssa Milano can do it, you can too.
It's been a rough two weeks for MSM. Iran is revolting its stolen election and defying its dictator for the first time in 30 years. I know this because I use the internet, and not because I read the newspaper (sadly, I don't anymore) or because I watch broadcast news (gag me). Throughout the past week, while traversing through rumors, journalism, heresy, and first-person accounts, I kept an eye on the internet's own revolt (further) against traditional media.
While internet communities - which include Iranians - were sharing information in real-time, some broadcast media essentially went dark on the protests for days. As much as of a love-hate relationship I've got going with Twitter right now, I can at least say honestly that it brought me real news faster than the boob tube. The whole thing is laughable, but also pretty sad.
It's true that social networking services like Twitter have no verification. You have to take every individual #iran tweet with a grain of salt. But because Iran has the kind of government it does, there would obviously be no foreign journalists with a camera anywhere within its borders this week. In 2003, Salam Pax blogged from Baghdad while the bombs fell. The difference then being there were also correspondents on the ground, reporting live for broadcast. Six years (and two presidential elections) later, it appears the scales have tipped well in the internet's favor.
---
Over the weekend, the lady and I were out of town for a wedding. When we checked into the hotel, the TV in the lobby had on cable news, which was covering the Iranian protests. As soon as we settled in our room, I put on the same.
At the same time, I turned on my iPhone and loaded my Twitter application. The cable news station had cameras shooting computer monitors (at bad angles) displaying Twitter. On my phone, I was in Twitter - which is to say, I was reading it firsthand, as well as participating in the conversation.
On TV, I saw melodramatic journalist-personalities ("journalisties"?) embellish unnewsworthy tweets, such as "If an innocent girl gets shot halfway across the world, does she make a sound? Yes, the whole world hears her." While in Twitter itself, I skimmed past the same updates and read dozens of other more meaningful notes.
On TV, I saw commercial breaks. In Twitter, the news never stopped (surprisingly great uptime this weekend).
On TV, I heard anchors repeat themselves every few minutes. In Twitter, I saw heavy retweeting - fast-growing groups of different people rallying around information together, not a one-way, aimless talking head.
When cable news finally decided to take a full break and let the news catch up to them, they spent 30 minutes recapping a news topic Americans hold dear: international soccer. This news organization was very obviously - and, to their credit, transparently - trying to play catch-up with the internet. But they've all swung the pendulum so far in the other direction, they're now also trying to play make-up.
---
I don't usually advocate token charity gestures online, but if you're on Twitter, there are two very easy things you can do to really support protesting Iranians.
First, change your Twitter account settings to Tehran time. If true, the rumors of Iranian Twitter crackdown means the more people posing as Iranians in Twitter, the harder it will be for them to silence real tweetin' Iranians. It might all be bunk, but it doesn't hurt and it takes about 7 seconds.
Secondly, change your Twitter profile picture to a shade of green. I used Photoshop, but you can use this nifty site to do it all online, or just pick a new one from this collection. It's the color of the opposing party, and it shows any Iranian on Twitter that you're listening and they have your support, wherever and whoever you are. If Alyssa Milano can do it, you can too.
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