Monday, June 15, 2009

"The First True Internet Uprising" ...

That phrase was coined this afternoon on NBC Nightly News as Brian Williams and Richard Engel examined how Iranians - defying efforts of the state to block the internet and cell phone use - used Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to transmit information about the protests taking place on the streets of Tehran today.

This is a story of special interest to both the news producer AND the news consumer. We have seen - and even participated in - examples of news coverage through social media ... but it can be a gamble, and it's hard to imagine a case where the stakes are so high as they are in the streets of Iran right now.

Watch the video, say a prayer, go online, and speak your piece.

An interesting sidenote is the number of hashtags that have popped-up for Iran-related Tweets on Twitter. The include #iranelection, #tehran, #iran , #iranrevolution , #CNNFail (about that network's coverage of the developments in that country) and #nomaintenance (about Twitter's plan to go down for maintenance later tonight).

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