#CNNFail: Iran Election News Coverage Leaves Traditional Media Tongue-Tied

Tehran, Iran, 18 June 2009. Regular readers of EconomyWatch.com know that we normally look at the economic underpinnings of news stories we cover.

We have already look at the economic causes and possible end results of the Iranian election and mass protests, in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s Charity Economics and the Apocalypse Brigade. [br]

Tehran, Iran, 18 June 2009. Regular readers of EconomyWatch.com know that we normally look at the economic underpinnings of news stories we cover.

We have already look at the economic causes and possible end results of the Iranian election and mass protests, in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s Charity Economics and the Apocalypse Brigade. [br]

However media organisations covering the Iranian crisis have their own issues.

Traditional media are struggling with declining audiences, fierce competition from the internet and declining ad revenues. Local newspapers have been closing at an alarming rate across US and Western Europe, and the whole business model of print and even broadcast TV corporations is being called into question.

In Iran they have a further problem; foreign journalists have been barred, meaning that ‘official’ reporting is no longer allowed. Instead, news organisations have found themselves relying on what everyone else these days relies on; Twitter, Facebook and news/ gossip/ opinion on other social networking sites. Which begs the question; why do we still need them?

CNN has been increasingly turning to social networks as part of its news coverage, leading to this roasting from comedian Jon Stewart on the Daily Show.

This has become a big topic of conversation on Twitter and other social media sites, with the topic ‘CNNFail’ and the hashtag ‘#CNNFail’ one of the quickest rising topics.

#CNNFail at once directly mocks CNN and alludes to the wider failure of traditional media to be able to keep up – and add value.[br]

Other news organisations are finding themselves somewhat tongue-tied, not knowing what the official line should be, and unsure what are ‘credible’ reports.

The fact is, the best news can be found either direct from the Iranians themselves on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook, or on sites that actively aggregate and summarise that mass of social reportage.

The best illustration of the disconnect between social media news and official coverage we have found was in an exchange we were between an irate reader of the main national newspaper & website in Singapore, and one of that paper’s editors. To protect their innocence, we shall call them Mr X and Ms Y. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves – enjoy.