Photo courtesy of USGS
What a difference 24 hours makes.
Last night at this time, the mainstream media — and CNN in particular — was under siege by users of the Twitter social networking Web site. You can read my comprehensive coverage and analysis here.
Countless users expressed their outrage about the coverage — or what many argued was the lack thereof — of the Iranian presidential election and its aftermath.
But the users didn’t stop there. They took the coverage into their own hands and presented something that rivaled anything the mainstream media could have. Users said to be within the Islamic Republic shared photos and video and personal experiences. Users outside disseminated the information and shared links from news agencies around the globe on what was happening in real time.
At least one user even wrote about coming under siege by officers with tear gas.
But now, a day later, CNN appears to have stepped up to the plate and met the expectations of many Twitter users.
Although anchors, including avid Twitter user Don Lemon, denied it was as a direct result of social network users, their coverage throughout Sunday has been dominated by the social unrest within Iran.
Regardless, Twitter users demanding increased coverage of the unrest found it.
Lemon did come close at the end of a special 11 p.m. live newscast to acknowledging the influence of Twitter folks when he said that social network users are playing “a large role in this story.”
It’s remarkable.
On his Twitter page two hours ago, Lemon reached out for information on the chaos half a world away, as he has for other stories in the past:
While I can’t say for certain if social network users — or Twitter users in particular — played any role in CNN’s increased coverage of the state of Iran Sunday, I can understand why many Twitter users believe they did.
In a completely unscientific survey of users around the world, I asked if anyone believes CNN’s increased coverage is in direct response to Twitter threads like the anti-#CNNfail.
Here are some of the responses, I received:
A Twitter user who identifies herself as Naseem Faqihi of Dubai:
Another user, who identifies himself as Ulrike Beudgen of Holzminden, Germany, agreed:
A Twitter user who identifies herself as Wendy McKoy of Jamaica was confident Faqihi and Beudgen were correct:
But a user who identifies himself as Brian Lewis of North Carolina seemed less sure:
Regardless of what went into the network’s decision, it would seem that social network users at least played a role in their coverage as throughout the multiple hours Don Lemon was on air on CNN, he solicited and shared users’ views.
In the end, it seems at least some Twitter users, like the person who identifies himself as Boris Demonjic of Ohio, are forgiving of CNN:
What do you think?
RELATED TECH TALK ENTRIES:
- Reuters: U.S. urged Twitter to delay downtime
- Finally a company that cares about the little guy
- ‘My eyes are burning…’
- Twitter shines in tragedy
- One small step for tweeters, one giant leap for mankind?
- With Twitter, all things are possible
- You don’t have to adjust your monitor
I think that Twitter will change the way we see and read news. It truly is a spectacular technology!
Comment by Tim Letros — June 16th, 2009 @ 1:42 pm
Tim,
Thank you for reading my blog and taking the time to write. I totally agree. And the potential of the technology is endless.
Comment by Jamie DeLoma — June 16th, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
[...] Countless news consumers demanded CNN cover the protests largely via social networking sites like Twitter. And although the self-proclaimed “most powerful name in news” resisted the first day, the news organization quickly changed course. For perhaps the first time in the history of journalism, the consumers directly affected the coverage. You can read my accounts of the events here. [...]
Comment by Convergence is shaping our world at delowdown with deloma — September 22nd, 2009 @ 2:52 am