Me, Iran and Twitter

My assertion: The Iranian presidential election does for Twitter what the Iraq war in 1990 did for CNN. We now experience a marked distinction as to how future news will be handled.

"Dear CNN, please check Twitter for news about Iran." (Comment on Twitter last weekend.)

In the safe comfort of a sofa at home in Norway last weekend, CNN was on my TV. On my PC, I had the Twitter channel #IranElection which gave me news several hours before the big news channels presented them as "breaking news". History was formed in front of my eyes both as to how we view Iran, and also how the media conveys news. Few, if any, had imagined that CNN would be leapfrogged by Twitter.

It was a revolution in news dissemination when CNN covered the 1990 Iraq War with initimate news stories day and night. All indications are that the next media revolution will be unfiltered and instant eyewitness accounts of news from "common" people of the world.

CNN, boasting to be the leading news channel, was long absent in its disclosure of what is happening in Iran. Twitter was the channel used by ordinary Iranians to get news and to communicate with the outside world. To me it became more interesting to watch Twitter than CNN, espesially since I wanted to follow the drama after the election closely.

For the uninitiated: Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a service where you can post small messages. News-wise, it separates itself from Facebook by the fact that each message must be compressed: Only 140 characters are allowed in each "tweet". People, often physically close to the events, report the events on Twitter. They often provide accurate and fresh information about what is going on, and so Twitter news spread dramatically faster than traditional media.

At the same time, this means a more democratic news coverage. Until now, it has been easy for Western citizens, myself included, to believe that the extreme views of the Guardian Council and President Ahmadinejad were synonymous with the Iranian point of view. Iranian twitterers give a different and more balanced picture of the situation in the country, an image that is barely conveyed by the major Western media.

For instance, twittering by Adel Ganje (#Mynumberone1988) in Iran's biggest port Bushehr, shows that ordinary Iranians are ashamed of their government. He and others pointed me to the Twitter TwitPic image service and a gripping photo of a woman in veils, tieing her fist against the armed police sprinting towards her (photo to the right).

In return, I twittered the Dagbladet story about the "real" election result, and news on the Aftenposten journalists arrested in Tehran. These were "re-twittered (RT)" by Iranians who were encouraged to see that the world was following the dramatic events in their country.

If I want to, I can filter tweets from people living for instance within a radius of 500 km around Tehran. Demonstrations were announced and organized continuously in Iranian cities, and in other cities like Berlin, London, Washington DC and Paris. Everything was coordinated and advertised on Twitter.

While the established western media were slow to catch on and almost seemed to accept an Ahmadinejad win, social media like Twitter gave freedom of speech to ordinary Iranians. At the same time, the outside world now has a lively channel into the real Iran. The country's young population, which lets its voice be heard on Twitter, give hope of a more moderate future for Iran.

"The regime in Iran could be the first to be twittered to death." (Comment on Twitter last weekend.)