Changing of the Guard: Mobile Internet, Social Media and Journalism

Pictures and videos from Iran, recently taken by individuals using mobile phones, raise issues we don’t want to face. Despite Iran, China and other oppressive regimes seeking to stop the flow of information, it continues to grow–not from the eyes and ears of “journalists,” but from people like you and me.

Joe Wilcox, a blogger, wrote a powerful post called “Iran and the Internet Democracy.” Wilcox shows disturbing YouTube videos and pictures of angry Iranian protesters who oppose their government.

He also describes how corporate news organizations are losing media power to individuals, who snap pictures and record videos with mobile phones, write tweets and transmit all of it over the mobile Internet in real time. The reality of one person electronically communicating to the world resembles Edward R. Murrow’s “This is London” during World War II.

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