Iran and the Internet

[shipperx]

Interesting article:

IDEA IN THE NEWS / June 16, 2009 -- Over the weekend, Iran hurtled into political upheaval, and America's 24-hour cable news networks hardly noticed. Mark Ambinder explains the role Twitter played in Iran. {...}

What I want to suggest is that events like this portend an interesting, largely unremarked upon change in American political discourse. Consider the two groups of friends I saw in Washington DC this weekend. Group 1 is largely composed of young DC journalists, most of them bloggers. These folks were well aware of events in Iran by Saturday afternoon, getting their updates from blog coverage via Google Reader, or Twitter, or both. {...} Group 2 is more diverse--really just a collection of friends and acquaintances--among them federal employees {...} This latter group knew almost nothing about the Iranian election, even Sunday night. One said she heard that Ahmadinejad won, but didn't yet realize the results were contested.

Yeah, it was the weekend. Who keeps up with the news outside the office? If CNN didn't bother to jump on the story, why would various white collar professionals who work outside journalism bother? And the folks I know who write or follow blogs have been ahead of the curve on news for some time now.

But I've never seen an information asymmetry quite like this...

Full article here

Comments

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

When you spend all your time on twitter and facebook - maybe you don't READ THE NEWSPAPER or WATCH THE NEWS because they have been all over the Iranian election for months. NBC had Ann Curry over there doing interviews with women and had a special. NPR has been covering the story for months.

It astounds me. Perfectly reasonable adults know everything about John and Kate +8 and have no idea of the event which actually will impact their lives for decades to come.

I think it takes more work not to know...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think there are many factors going on here. One being that cable news has become more about punditry than about actual news. Another being it was the weekend, and I know that I personally didn't get a lot of news from cable news over the weekend and what news I got I tended to get over the internet, because generally that is my habit. And, I think there was more to get on the internet than on the cable news channels, but that is hardly unique to this situation, and comes with hazards of its own because there's info of every stripe on the internet so you do have to be your own bullshit meter.

On the other hand, one of the best, most explanatory pieces I have seen on the election was on last week's 60 Minutes that interviewed regular Iranian voters prior to the election. It's not like all television has completely ignored the situation.

I do think that, however, if someone depends exclusively on cable news networks for information, a lot of nuance is lost. That's not really what cable news is set up for.

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

I worked for ABC News for 10 years and CNN for 15. Both news organizations started their day by reading the newspapers and deciding which stories to cover. Plus whatever the White House and Cap Hill were doing.

The biggest difference was that ABC has to pack all their information in a 28 minute evening broadcast. CNN had to fill 18 hours daily. So CNN spends all day repeating the glaringly obvious the cheapest way possible (like anchors reading Ruters wires). Still, when it comes to breaking news, CNN usually can get there first with accurate information. When I started at CNN Ted Turner said "the news is king" but now the cult of the anchor rules.

I still trend towards ABC and like Charlie Gibson - he's been around for a long time and I think he's a good managing editor. Still, ABC thinks 2 & 1/2 minutes is a 'long' piece. I really depend on newspapers for analysis.

I tend towards broadcast news pm, newspapers am and the CNN website when I am checking my email. If I hear NPR in the car then I guess I've gotten all my news sources for the day. I'm not to into internet news.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

For me the evening network news is simply a non-starter. Not because of anything against the network evening news, just that with my work schedule I rarely if ever leave work in time to be home to watch it. I'm usually lucky to be home before prime time kicks in.

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

Um - sorry! Didn't mean YOU as in you, personally. But I have seen loads of information in every news platform. How people can't know this, esp if they live in DC, really means they are living in a bubble.

[rowanswhimsy.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how this dude's friends missed it but he might not want to draw conclusions from that sampling. Even as critical as I am about the media, I sure didn't miss seeing it. And I didn't get my info from blogs or Twitter. It was all over the Sunday news shows, for example.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think the best piece I've seen on the election was prior to the election on 60 Minutes, which I thought did a great service by covering it and interviewing actual people on the street regarding their feelings about the then upcoming election.

The three cable news nets these days seem more about screaming pundits than objective news.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

You know, that's very interesting. I knew a great deal about it, just from listening to NPR and watching, of all things, the CBS Evening News. I hardly ever watch CNN anymore, since they, well, don't broadcast the NEWS anymore...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

No, they don't. They really, really don't.

Although they are the only cable news network whose morning while-I-get-dressed-for-work programming I can watch without feeling all stabby.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Since Barb's still sleeping when I leave, I don't see much morning news; I watch both the CBS and ABC Evening News broadcasts (often very good), and get most world news from NPR on the weekends.

I used to have "Headline News" on practically all the time, until they put on nothing but idiots who made me feel stabby...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I never manage to see evening news because it's rare that I leave work until close (or after) 6pm so by the time I make the commute I barely have time to change clothes before prime time comes on.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I traded that schedule for leaving at 4:45 to get to the gym by 5 so I can get in a whole hour's workout before getting showered and changed for work...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I think it would take explosives to get me out of bed at 4:45am.

[nmissi.livejournal.com]

I spent this past weekend on the road; my only "news" came from the half-hour I spent in the breakfast room at the hotel. It was rather surreal to come home to the hubbub; I had completely forgotten the election was taking place. Thankfully, the conservative blogs I check in the mornings were on task and brought me quickly up to speed.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I can't even say what I was doing this weekend other than vegging. I just didn't watch the news this weekend. (I did watch a lot of "True Blood" OnDemand so that's probably where my time went. But I did keep tabs on the goings on via the internet, and the things going on in Iran truly are fascinating and horrifying at the same time.)