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Iran vs. Iran – A Revolution Captured by Social MediaIn Iran, we are witnessing that very moment – a revolution unplugged. In streets swept by defiant protestors for the past seven days – post-election of the incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; scenes of chaos have been described to us through singing gunshots, angry helicopters, and graphic images of wounded men, women and children being severely beaten, injured, and then carried off into another hospital bed.  The origin of this revolution comes at the barking of Mir Hossein Moussavi, who believes last week’s Iranian election was fixed – where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received more than 24 million votes – nearly double the number Moussavi received. On Moussavi’s Facebook page, he asserts that through a massive manipulation of the vote, with Ahmadinejad receiving more than 11 million votes over Moussavi 13 million, the election must have been fixed. His supporters now dress in his signature "Green Revolution" colors that accompanied his campaign.  And as reality strikes us with each update, this particular revolution has strung a different chord in 2009, allowing social media to be the key component in allowing the world to see the unfettered truth, happening nearly every hour in Iran. The hash tag (#iranelection) has been in Twitter's top 10 trending topic since the election ended last week. And every 15 seconds, there are more than 100 updates on the hash tag, many live from ground zero – showing violence from the streets through uncensored images and videos. Iranians have taken up cameras, mobile phones and computers to send Twitter updates, YouTube videos, and Flickr photos of the country's riots. The number of Twitter posts with the hash tag #iranelection has risen in monumental fashion on Twitter since the riots have become more intense. On Saturday, June 20, 2009, there were close to 82,000 tweets in just one hour. The number of blog posts discussing Iran has been on the rise as well, there are nearly 86 million blog posts that discuss Iran in some manner, and on in the last 24 hours there has been over a million of newly published posts. According to reports Saturday night on CNN, one woman said that riot police pushed her and about 300 people back with batons and water hoses as they were trying to reach Tehran’s Revolution Square late Saturday afternoon. Another eyewitness said that he saw an old man who had been shot in the head. Another protestor said she saw two helicopters hover above a group, and then police broke up the group with tear gas, and those who ran away were hit badly with batons. All of this being caught through images or video of some type. The power of video has also been used to push an imaginable force of emotion on the public. A video was released of a woman named Neda (#Neda) who was injured during the riots and died in a matter of seconds, all caught on YouTube. I give you fair warning before clicking the following link to go watch that video – for that reason, I am not embedding it. The following video is extremely graphic and you should be prepared before watching it here. I am including this because we need to understand that social media is raw, and allows the public to see an uncensored version of the world or an event. And in the need of just simple understanding, the world must realize what is actually taking place in Iran. Many other videos have also been released on YouTube that show protestors and police, militia and individuals who have had no part in these riots - being punished. In one video, recorded June 19, 2009, a woman is filming from her rooftop and reciting a poem about the violence happening below her. And in those streets, you hear the shouting of hundreds of people, evoking such powerful emotion and thought about what is taking place in her country. In another video recorded by the BBC, the Basij Militia open up fire into the protesting crowds: Protests are also not only taking place in Iran, but all over the world, This video, very well-produced, comes from an election protest in Paris: And in Tehran, recorded Saturday, June 20, 2009, just the amount of people you see in the streets is something to stop and think about. And in some of the most graphic images to come out of the battle so far, a preganant woman was shot in the back earlier this week. Tehranian doctors removed the woman’s fetus and showed the graphic result of violence involved in these riots. The following image is extremely graphic - please be prepared before viewing the image here. And similar to emergencies in the U.S., Twitter has been used to help tell people where to go if they have been injured, and phone numbers to dial in order to help find anyone who might be missing. Twitter also has been a component to help protestors gather and recruit others to help promote tactics to keep the Iranian government off-guard. Twitter-ers from all around the world are also taking part, and are requesting others to change their local Twitter time in their settings to the Iranian time zone to keep the government from trying to shutdown any local tweeters. As of 10:16 pm EST on June 20, 2009, Tweeters were reporting that Iran’s oldest militia, the Basij, "were raiding people’s homes overnight and killing people in their homes." At 10:19 pm EST, Tweeters were offering guerrilla tactics if facing the Iranian government, “realitybias RT guerrilla tactic: If facing a tank, molotov cocktails drive people out of them. Aim for ventilation and entry port.#iranelection” These are just two of the thousands of tweets I reviewed during just an hours time. See what others are saying as well:    Conclusion. This display of escalating violence and mayhem unfortunately has only increased since this post was written. Iran is a nation caught in a web of chaos, and even though social media has allowed a colossal audience to see the destruction happening inside a country, it’s important to recognize what is taking place. And as we monitor this on a daily basis, and use social media as the favorable tool to do so, we must accept the reality described above, even as uncensored as it might be sometimes. But in return, the world is able to see what is happening inside Iran, and can react accordingly – keeping us informed and knowledgeable of the situation at hand. Labels: Facebook, Iran Election, Social Media, Twitter |
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1 Comments:
You can view pics from #iranelection alongside tweets containing #iranelection here, http://bit.ly/13stY6.
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