Twitter and Iran Coverage
June 16, 2009
Despite the yip yap about the future of Twitter and its general uselessness, the little service that could provided some information about the hoe down in Iran. Seems to me that traditional media faced some challenges, so those with knowledge of Twitter were able to send out news bullets in 140 character packets. Useful that. You can read the CBC’s take on the Tweets in its June 15 story “Twitter Emerges as News source during Iran Media Crackdown”. For me the most interesting comment in the report was:
Citizenlab, which runs out of the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies, is one of many groups making software available that allows citizens in Iran to sign on to a server that gives them secure access to web pages anywhere, bypassing government restrictions. The software, PsiPhon, has been made available for Twitter users, as the social messaging tool has taken centre stage as a source of news from Iran since Saturday.
Is the information as “good” as that available from Fox News or the estimable CNN? I don’t know. But I much prefer seeing a stream and making my own decisions about what seems to cooking. I sure couldn’t locate timely info on the mainstream media sites. Twitter may not be the top rated news site in the pantheon of info giants, but I think it was useful and showed its potential.
Stephen Arnold, June 16, 2009
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