Iran election crisis: a social media timeline
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/TECH/06/23/why.retweet.twitter/art.twitter.gi.jpg caption="Social networking tools like Twitter were a major source of breaking news from Iran"]
Ben Parr
Mashable
One of the striking aspects of the #IranElection crisis has been the heavy use of social media. Iranians have relied on it to spread information on protests and to communicate their situation to millions of concerned people worldwide.
In fact, so much has been recorded via social media that it is possible to understand the progression of events through it. Thus, we have built a timeline of events utilizing information recorded via social media. This timeline uses Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Wikipedia to paint a broad picture of the situation, as well as the growing conversation around it.
June 12: The Election
On Friday, June 12th, Iran held its Presidential Elections. According to the official (but now disputed) vote tally, Ahmadinejad secured 24.5 million votes, or 62.6 percent, while Mousavi garnered 13.2 million votes, or 33.7 percent.
Social media was already tracking the results as they occurred. We have provided snippets from Wikipedia, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube, as well as links to the searches, articles, and multimedia referenced here.
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Filed under: 360° Radar • Iran • Twitter |
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The coverage of the elections and the marches of protest in Iran has its greatest sources of information in alternative media: texts in blogs, videos posted on youtube, shared pictures in flickr, images and messages via Twitter.
The Iranian censors discovered that censorship is no more able to ensure the "black out" of the media and that the population will find a way to communicate with the outside world.
When the Iranian censors expelled journalists and tighten the siege on the internet, they discovered that Twitter could not be censured just as easily that other sites. Unlike of sites like facebook, orkut or myspace, the Twitter page isn't fixed and can be easily accessed by mobile.
The reading Twitter offers fast, direct contact with sources, ability to mobilize large groups and serves to attract readers interested in stories published in special reports. It is a convenient tool for reporters and readers