ABSTRACT
The controversial presidential election in Iran was the number one news topic on Twitter in 2009 (Twitter 2009). People tagged information on the protest with the hashtag #iranelection. Twitter was considered by many to be crucial for the reporting of events on the ground. Time magazine reported that
when protests started to escalate, and the Iranian government moved to suppress dissent both on- and off-line, the Twitterverse exploded with tweets from people who weren’t having it, both in English and in Farsi. While the front pages of Iranian newspapers were full of blank space where censors had whited-out news stories, Twitter was delivering information from street level, in real time.
(Grossman 2009)This event and others like it have led to a debate in the popular literature that Twitter is a new source of journalism (see Ingram 2008). Proponents argue that Twitter has been central to breaking news by providing real-time updates. Other examples include the 2008 Chinese earthquake, where it is claimed that tweets of the earthquake bested major news organizations like CNN and BBC (Siegler 2008) and the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, where “moments after the first shots were fired, Twitter users in India, and especially in Mumbai, were providing instant eyewitness accounts of the unfolding drama” (Beaumont 2008). Twitter can be a source of breaking news because it is “a real time global communications platform” (Jewitt 2009, p. 2345). It allows anyone with access to the web, via computer or even cellphone, to immediately share eyewitness accounts with others all around the world. There is some evidence that Twitter is changing newsgathering practices. An online survey of print and web journalists in 2009 found that 52 percent used Twitter for online research (George Washington University and Cision 2009). Thus Twitter is a democratic media because it allows for democratic activism. Others are less convinced of Twitter as a form and/or source of journalism. These critics point to the vast amount of inaccuracies and unsubstantiated rumour tweeted. For instance, during the Mumbai attacks, a tweet (allegedly) from the Indian government asked twitterers to stop posting messages about police and military operations. It was retweeted 110numerous times and was even included in a BBC web story. After the tweet could not be verified, the online editor of BBC News issued a mea culpa. Misinformation was very prevalent in tweets on the Iran election. Twitspam, which tracks Twitter spammers, posted a list of possible fake accounts, some of which were thought to have connections with the Iranian security apparatus (Twitspam 2009). The site warned people to block fake accounts and avoid retweeting information. Critics contend that there is no way to know if information posted on Twitter is credible. James (2009) points out “One function of mainstream media journalism is to disseminate information we’ve determined to be reliable. … But the reliance on Twitter and Facebook is essentially throwing the doors open to everything and anything.”