With the revolutionary emergence of social media and its constant convergence on the media landscape it is quickly changing the face of mainstream journalism. With such easy access to social media networks it is possible for almost anybody with an Internet connection to be a journalist.
This article by Nic Newman looks at the impacts Social media is having on journalism and how countries like the United Kingdom and America are dealing with the rise of citizen journalism.
This article is useful as it focuses on a relevant event, the Iranian protests in 2009 where the use of mobile technologies were dominant in reporting on the events that took place and then social media platforms were used to distribute the stories.
Newman contrasts how in years past news was only available on traditional forms of media such as Newspapers and Television and Radio Broadcasts which took a lot longer to be prepared and aired. In a country like Iran where the government has such a strict control on the media, the news stories would often be one sided and biased leaving out certain pieces of information especially when reporting on student clashes with the government.
Newman explains how powerful information and videoing sharing sites such as YouTube were in allowing everyday Iranian citizens to have their voices and stories heard. “Iranian citizens are having their voices heard, their faces seen and their story gets told around the
World without filtering” (Scott Rubin YouTube spokesperson)
This statement from one of the worlds most used and popular social media sites shows just how powerful it is in allowing citizens to produce their own news stories and share them with the world with no restrictions or filtering necessary. People no longer have to wait for the hourly bulletin to see what is going on there is far more stories available through social media which you can access wherever you are through mobile devices.
Newman then goes on to examine the role twitter had throughout the protests. Twitter is the most prolific and up to date social media site with most news organizations using it as a more direct portal to their audience. The article shows that Twitter was the most common media used in spreading information through the protests with a hash-tag #Iranelections49, that became the central point for people willing to view and share information and stories.
It is interesting to see that throughout the protests the Iranian government tried to shutdown twitter and other information sources but links had been shared on how to hide your IP address from the authorities. This demonstrates the power of social media and how it is not confined by any government censorship or restrictions and the ability it has to spread across the world much faster than any traditional form of news.
This article is very informative and useful in describing how powerful social media can be in spreading information a lot quicker than traditional forms of media. Although the article only looks at one case where social media was used as a journalistic tool in a third world country during a violent protest. The results may be quite different in a western democratic country with a more open and free media.
References:
Newman, N, 2009, The rise of social media and its impact on mainstream journalism,
ozzies blog 