http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn An entire Lightstalkers thread via RSS/XML. en-us I don't know about anyone else in my field, but is anyone a tad concerned that Twitter and Facebook have become the defacto source of news information in Iran right now? I mean, maybe I'm an old fart here, but I find it astonishing that CNN and Fox are using Twitter and Facebook to provide coverage on the situation in Iran over journalists. To me this seems odd that there are no AP, no CNN cameramen or reporters that are able to crack a media block out, yet college kids with cellphone cameras and access to Twitter can. One would think there would be journalists in Iran who would employ or at least could transfer data, images and sound through the net to CNN of MSNBC or someone. I just find it amazing that after six hours of watching CNN, all their news gathering is coming off Twittter in to the office and then all the data is being analyzed by Turner's "Professionals". My head's spinning, Magnum could cover Tienanmen Square, but no Reuters or AP in Iran!? Guess, I'm not too old to take up drinking, cause the world's making my head spoin right now. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:03:22 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn Turning social upheaval into a self-congratulatory tech story was always going to be an easier sell: http://tinyurl.com/mzj5n3 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:06:44 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150125 For what CNN et. al are willing to pay to send people into harm's way, it's no wonder that their coverage is coming from Twitter and Facebook. They can get "something" for free (while, by the way, giving themselves an easy-out over accuracy), they'll take it. It's WAY cheaper than the couple grand per day plus expense the rest of us would charge to risk imprisonment and death in an unfriendly Middle Eastern country. Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:53:01 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150175 With established media you know with who you are dealing, reading between lines or omissions. You never know who are all of this new technologies sources. With all the technologies i don't believe we have best information. We have a lot more of noise and experts doing analysis. Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:40:17 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150179 All that power in 140 characters or less! Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:59:01 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150181 The problem that CNN encounters with Iran is that they have a fully functioning bureau there which is allowed to operate under the proviso that they act in a benign manner. You only have to look at the deeply held paranoia within the Iranian goverment with regards to the media and their blanket blackouts so realise that they are never going to let western media groups operate without impunity when matters of state are raised. Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:53:21 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150203 Even without having a live broadcast, one would think AP or CNN or any other media agency would have reporters who could at least get information out of Iran back to the bureau HQ. If college kids on Twitter can do it, surely a professional journalist trained in working in a hostile environment could do it. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:08:15 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150334 As someone who has worked for CNN, I know the kind of kidgloves used in certain fields. The main worry for the their Iranian operations is that the bureau is still only in its infancy and there is a reluctance to 'rock-the-boat' with the current regime. The fear of having their reporters and operation evicted from the country is affecting the way they are operating. The same reluctance to cover certain issues in other area of the Middle East a number of years back was for the very same reason. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:40:29 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150338 Kidgloves? Hey if they aren't up to reporting on the biggest news to come out of Iran in 30 years then what is the point in having a bureau at all? I say, get the story and then get out if you you must but don't leave something as important as this to "iReporters". God, that term always makes me want to vomit. Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:12:39 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150576 Kidgloves indeed. The 'kudos' attached to having a Tehran office is something that CNN has been striving for, for some time and no they have it they lost all credibility as a premier news-gathering organisation. I agree that when events surface with the gravitas as those currently taking place in Iran, you must put aside your long-term ambitions and cover the story as required. The BBC (for all its faults) paid the price for both theirs and Miliband's posturing, and currently find themselves outside the wire. Better that, then an impotent news agency. The Iraq experiance has left CNN (and many of the western media) reliant upon stringers and the infamous "iReporters" (unpaid, moneymaking stringers). The Baghdad bureau had a very small number of good, competent journalists and as a consequence many important issues were missed and left to be picked up by the fledgling Iraqi news groups. This has left them with people who are unskilled in the workings of a fluid, hostile enviroment like Tehran. Many of the permanent and visiting newshounds had arrived with vitality and gusto but left dulled and unfulfilled by the experiance, confined by the shackles of 'yet another embed'. Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:36:38 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150585 here my: gmkphotography Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:03:22 +0000 http://www.lightstalkers.org/posts/twitter-more-powerful-than-cnn#150673