Twittering the uprising?

For two days I have stayed closely across Twitter's "coverage" of events in Iran. Twitter has had such a strong write up after previous breaking news stories, I thought I'd compare with conventional news coverage. 

Result? Mixed. 

If you, as an average news consumer, relied on Twitter you might believe all sorts of things had happened, which simply hadn't, running a high risk of being seriously misled about events on the ground. You might at best, have simply been confused. You probably wouldn't have thought Ahmadinejad enjoys much popular support at all. 

But if you had a reasonable understanding of social media, how to set up and assess feeds, how to compare and contrast information, if you had a reasonable understanding of news flows, a developed sense of scepticism, and an above average understanding of the political situation in Iran, you would have emerged much better informed than the lay viewer relying on TV or Radio news. The information online ran significantly ahead of the news organisations (who hopefully were taking time to check what they could) but it came at a high noise to signal ratio....(at one point I measured almost 2500 updates in a minute - though usually it was closer to 200)

Social media can be a huge benefit in news coverage - not least it was one of the few ways for people in Iran to communicate with the west. But mediation by people who understand the story and don't have a particular agenda to advance is still needed to get a grasp of what has, and hasn't, actually happened and a measured sense of proportion. What was evident on Twitter this weekend was the accelerating effects of a continuous news cycle and appetite. Just as 24 hour news channels must stay on air with some kind of coverage, social media is even hungrier. And noise fills the void when events or facts can't. 

Of course, it's not "either/or"... you can have the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, Al Jazeera and also have Twitter, which this weekend has reinforced its place for the energy of debate, discussion, links, rumour, gossip and more. Enjoy - (I will!) - just don't take it all as fact. 

Comments

[Fred Dupont]

I agree with you, the twitter experience brought lots of rumors, unconfirmed data that was later confirmed or not, no headlines, etc...
RAW DATA, as is comes when things are happening, with its usual chaos and seemingly absence of direction...
But, isn't it how history happens, with a time arrow looking forward, without filters and the impossibility to discern what is relevant and important?
I think we all have been fooled by the delusional pretense of the media and history to make sense of things after the facts; historians and journalists are looking at events through the lenses of an inverted time arrow that makes them imagine relationships and causalities where there are none; that allows them to only consider what has been remembered as relevant.
The pure randomness of twitter is an eye opener on how life happens and how events unfold... a lesson to remember next time a journalist hack will tell us, in all seriousness, his version of why things happened as they did.

Maybe also a new angle for you to consider your catch line: "everyone is entitled to his own opinion, not to his own facts"?

[Chris Anderson (@TEDChris on Twitter)]

Yes, Twitter is a crowd-sourced crowd-curated newsfeed that certainly needs handling with care.

BUT the deeper point is that following the events on Twitter prompts an entirely different level of ENGAGEMENT. Reading live tweet-streams from people like @change_for_iran you find yourself concerned for them personally. It's a whole other part of your brain that's engaging.

So millions of Twitterers end up getting involved, even if it's only by the occasional retweet or message of encouragement.

The shift from casual observer to engaged participant is a big deal. Arguably the rage expressed on Twitter about main-stream media's apparent initial underplaying of the situation in Tehran (at least in the US on Saturday - see #cnnfail ) was part responsible for dialing up coverage since.

[Dena Shunra]

In what way does that differ from choosing the larger media organizations one listens to?

Some traditional media are *great*. Most have a bias, and familiarity with that bias over time improves their reliability. Some traditional media are awful, or have a bias that gets in the way of actually conveying information. The same is true about Twitter.

If the "Twitter revolution" leads to greater skepticism and a better ability to question information and take it critically, it will be a great improvement in media consumption.

[Maria Lavis]

I also watched the events unfold via twitter, and it was ahead of the news curve, but it also involved sorting through reams of posts/data as you mentioned. Much of the #iranelection stream did become choked with superfluous commentary, but the value to me in that was the show of interest and support for people in need and international news.

What was really helpful were rational, reasonable people who filtered the feed to reliable sources, as well as cross referenecing reports to other reports saying same or conflicting thing.

It seems that twitter has something of value to add to the news process indeed.

@marialavis (On Twitter)

[Richard S]

I completely agree with the point about engagement. Twitter is closer to live conversation than passively consuming news or even reading blogs as noticeboards and pinning up comments. And deeper engagement in world events must be a good thing.

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I agree with you, the twitter experience brought lots of rumors, unconfirmed data that was later confirmed or not, no headlines, etc...
RAW DATA, as is comes when things are happening, with its usual chaos and seemingly absence of direction...

[Phil Chetwynd, AFP Asia Editor, @philchet]

Many thanks for this excellent and clear-headed analysis. We have been sharing your thoughts among senior editors at AFP over the past few weeks as we all grapple with trying to filter the Twitter noise. The debate has kicked off again after Michael Jackson, although for me that story was more about old media using new platforms. It is hardly surprising TMZ broke the story as they have more reporters and sources covering Hollywood than any other news organisation. The scoop was disseminated by Twitter et al, but it was old fashioned journalism that broke the story

[Sean (@SeanMalarkey)]

I agree with Chris above. It was definitely discouraging to see the rumours and try to separate them from fact. But, it was encouraging to see so many people coming together for a single cause no matter where they were in the world. You have to love a tool that alows that!

[MSN symbols]

It was a really pivotal moment in the history of 'news reporting' - when people overtook 'the establishment' and provided the real news.

[Tim Scott]

I agree wih you big time on this one. I hear alot of news first on Facebook and Twitter before it even hits the papers, radio, or even tv. The problem is that with social media is almost like that game we all played in elementary school. Where we all stood in a line, and on one end a kid whispered something into the ear of the person in front on them, etc... Well by the time that word or phrase got to the end of the line, it was something completely different. But thats wha happens when there is no filter.

[Anna]

It was a really pivotal moment in the history of 'news reporting' - when people overtook 'the establishment' and provided the real news. http://www.rapidskunk.com

[t-shirt noir]

May be it's like myspace: nobody will use twitter in 5 years !

[George]

I agree with Chris above. It was definitely discouraging to see the rumours and try to separate them from fact. But, it was encouraging to see so many people coming together for a single cause no matter where they were in the world. You have to love a tool that alows that! http://www.fullmediafire.com

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