USC Center on Public Diplomacy

Direct link to this article: http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/newsroom/specialreports_detail/6963/

Published: JUL 6, 2009 - 11:24AM PST

Special Reports
Special reports are articles collecting the most relevant public diplomacy articles and information on topical issues, and are posted periodically by our research team at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy.

GREEN WAVE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND THE IRANIAN ELECTION
JUL 6, 2009 - 11:24AM PST
by Naomi Leight

Media Coverage of the Iranian Election and Opposition Protests The June 12 presidential election in Iran has brought the impact of new media use by foreign publics to communicate with and advocate for one another to the forefront of global news media. Shortly after Ahmadinejad was pronounced the definitive winner of the election, the Iranian opposition, led by Mir Hussein Moussavi, took to the streets of Iran to protest the results. In an effort to suppress the coverage of these protests, the Iranian regime forbade foreign journalists from reporting on events throughout the country, disconnected cellular phone and SMS services, and slowed the internet to an almost unusable speed. These events gave rise to the coverage of the post-election protests through new media such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. As a result, new media became the primary source for on-the-ground information not only for Iranians communicating with each other, but for traditional media sources and the global public. Within two weeks of the Iranian election, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) produced an expanded version of their weekly New Media Index. Their research found that the topic of the Iranian elections dominated blogs, Twitter and other new media sites far more than it did in the mainstream media. PEJ also reported that 98% of the links on Twitter were about the Iranian elections and subsequent protests during the week of June 15-19 and that 63% of links posted in blogs and other new media sources focused specifically on the Iranian elections. According to PEJ, traditional media covered the Iranian elections to a much lesser degree, representing only 28% of press coverage for the same time period. Public Diplomacy and New Media: International Broadcasting in the 21st Century Traditional media outlets, unable to report on the opposition protests first-hand, were forced to rely on new media coverageof the post-election situation in Iran. The new “citizen journalist” became the link to the outside for the Iranian opposition. With the entire world relying on these new media sources, Twitter, along with YouTube, Facebook and Flickr, brought two-way communication between foreign publics to a new level. Traditionally, international broadcasting is dominated by broadcasting radio programs to foreign publics through government sponsored radio stations and websites such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. Governments have historically relied on these programs as well as editorials in newspapers and speeches in order to connect with foreign publics. The dominance of new media usage by the Iranian public demonstrates that foreign publics no longer need government intermediaries to listen to and connect with each other. The Iranian opposition not only reached out to foreign publics to hear their voices, but it called on people around the world to spread their message of opposition and relay information about events occurring in Iran. In short, public diplomacy has taken place on a massive global scale between foreign publics through the use of new media thanks to this hotly contested election. And while the…... FULL TEXT

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