Twitter began making daily headlines this year as Oprah joined on in April and Ashton Kutcher became the first user to score one million followers. Celebrity participation on Twitter put this social media venture on the map for many who weren't already in the know, and it has definitely helped to stimulate Twitter's 73% growth since January.
In the past two and a half weeks, popular discourse about Twitter has changed drastically. No longer are people discussing Twitter as an opt-in celebrity gossip magazine. The talk has changed to Twitter as a global news source, an aspect of Twitter that has been discussed by new media enthusiasts and journalists for a while (see recap of @media140).
Following the widely disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on June 12th, the start of massive rallies in many Iranian cities, and Iran's subsequent clamp-down on foreign journalism, protesting Iranians turned to Twitter to report their situation. The tweets from Iran (along with many Iranian blogs) then became a primary, although unverifiable and a bit skewed, source to the foreign press for information about the developing unrest. Not only was Twitter being used by Iranian demonstrators to spread news, photos and videos of the unfolding events to each other, newsrooms around the world began publishing the tweets from Iran to keep readers abreast of the developments.
That weekend, a tidal wave of frightening information and links to terrifying photos and videos was flooding in from Iran via Twitter. Quickly the hashtag* #IranElection became the number one trending topic. People around the world began to rally in support of the Iranian dissidents and twitterers from everywhere colored their avatars green in support of the protesters and their “Sea of Green.”
Due in part to the attention the uprising was receiving, but mainly due to Twitter’s obvious function as sole communication tool for protesters coming under attack, The US State Department contacted Twitter headquarters the weekend following the election, and asked them to delay their scheduled site maintenance on June 15th to aid the communication of Iranians on the street. This action by the State Department was an unprecedented event for new media, and it’s a prime example of Twitter’s impact on global awareness.
Since June 12th, #IranElection has left the trending topics only briefly before Twitterers have united to raise its popularity by “tweeting it up,” and the online sea of green continues in solidarity with those wearing green half a world away.
Twitter has become a vital part of media, not just social or new media, but as an important news source and avenue for communicating events as they happen. It has raised global awareness of many important issues (not just in Iran), and generated support and activism in the global community.
The distress of the Iranian people is heavy on my mind, as I’ve followed these events closely and watched history being made in real time. It’s been difficult for me to speak objectively on this subject, but as it is making communication history NOW, I’m happy to discuss it here. Following #IranElection has been an exciting, sobering, downright scary, yet valuable experience for me.
*If you haven’t heard the term hashtag before, that’s because it’s a term used only in reference to Twitter. Hashtags are topical phrases proceeded by a # without spaces that twitterers use to participate in public discussion.
