The tweeted revolution: how social media cannot be silenced

It’s starting to become a little ridiculous for people — many of them old-school journalists — to deny the power of Twitter, especially in light of what is happening in Iran right now.

I can offer no great insight into who really won the recent presidential election, but it is clear to everyone that many people in Iran are not happy and feel they have been screwed over. Again, however, it is social media leading the way for coverage. If you want to know what’s really going on in Iran, Twitter is the place to be.

Right now, four of the top trending topics on the service are IranElection (No. 1 right now), Tehran, Iranians and TwitterReschedules. The last topic is about how Twitter has rescheduled routine maintenance, as not to disrupt the current chatter about Iran. It’s a good thing that Twitter at least recognizes the seriousness of this situation, because many in at traditional media outlets haven’t paid much attention to this unfolding story.

The Iranian government controls the media. The BBC even believes that Iran is responsible for their satellite signal being blocked in the region. That’s exactly where a subversive social media technology like Twitter comes in.

Decades ago, a totalitarian government could have made it extremely difficult for the outside world to know what was happening in their country. To this day, North Korea and its internal workings are shrouded in mystery. State-run media can silence dissidents internally as well.

But no government has found a way to silence the broader Web. Sure China tries, but even the great firewall has great cracks. In Iran, we are seeing that the Web — and more specifically social media — cannot be silenced.

What makes Twitter such a subversive tool is that it is so hard to block and stop. Anyone with a mobile phone (and there are many more mobile phones than computers in the world) can post to Twitter. Those with more advanced phones can upload photos and text via the service. It’s difficult to stop millions of people from sharing their experiences via a network like Twitter.

Sure, Iran is trying to block all this information from coming out, but that’s far easier said than done. On the Web, even if the government finds a way to block a Web service, it won’t stay blocked for long. Alternative proxies and other workarounds quickly propagate throughout the Internet.

Beyond the merely technically is the shear scale of the problem for the Iranian government. There are lots of social media sites out there to try to block, and even if the government managed to block all of them, it would still have to contend with millions of blogs. The beauty of the Web is that it allows anyone’s voice to be heard.

For the real story, one needs to be on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc. The mainstream media like CNN have been woefully inadequate in covering the turmoil (although they have been coming around). In fact, for most of the weekend, CNN.com did not feel the unrest in Iran was worthy of being the top story.

Ironically, it was Twitter users who slammed CNN the hardest. #CNNFail become a popular hashtag on the service as angry users slammed the network for taking such a caviler approach to this issue. Ever since then, CNN.com has taken a far more serious and in-depth approach to the upheaval in Iran.

Here is what some Iranians are saying on Twitter:

“I’ve learned something today. Americans DO care about the world outside America. Their media just doesn’t.”

“Non stop sound of shooting heard in Tehran.”

“Just saw pics of dead bodies. Bodies of young iranians. Got sick and cried for hrs.”

“Good night. viva freedom. viva truth. Hope a better coverage by media. That’s our only support.”

“I’m so tired and going to get some rest while I know there r people & students in streets fighting for justice.”

YouTube big in coverage too

Not only are people sharing powerful images and text via Twitter, but a myriad of user-generated video is appearing on YouTube. These are the kinds of video that traditional media outlets rarely get. These are also the kinds of video that the MSM may hide from the public because they are too raw (read: to real).

For instance, take this video of a crowd of protestors being shot at:

Here is another video of protestors chanting into the night:

Professional journalism bringing analysis, insight & context

There is, of course, room for professional journalists in this equation. Professional reporters can make sense of all these tweets, photos and videos. Professional reporters can also offer additional on-the-ground insight.

Beyond that, professional journalists can offer analysis and try to answer the why question. The ideal future of media involves a collaboration between citizen and professional journalists.

These are the kinds of stories you won’t find originating on Twitter:

• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered an investigation into charges of voter fraud
• BBC Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba looks at the key questions in the wake of the county’s bitterly contested presidential election result
• In Iran, an iron cleric, now blinking
• ANALYSIS – No-win situation for Obama team on Iran

All of these photos come via Flickr, another social networking site that is helping to spur this revolution.