Iran: Back on the Radar

Iran is slipping off the media radar, finding itself replaced by the global mourning rituals for Michael Jackson, Wall Street's continued decline, and the latest Republican career-ending train wreck. But there is still a story in Tehran, and it's not a happy one.
 
As Nobel laureates call for the release of prisoners and a full investigation into Iran's human rights violations, the Guardian UK has developed an amazing interactive tool to track those killed or arrested in the unrest. And our own Michal Shapiro's World Music blog has unearthed a music video dedicated to Neda Agha Soltan, whose disturbing killing, broadcast on YouTube, made her an unwitting symbol of the crisis.

Iran's youth are at the center of this stalled revolution, and their discontent was apparent well before the first protests began in Tehran. Six months ago, this prescient video was posted to YouTube, proclaiming Iran as a "nation of bloggers":


Of course, technology - and the micro-blogging service Twitter in particular - played a critical role in organizing June's mass street demonstrations. An op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor has even nominated Twitter for a Nobel Peace Prize, as the "megaphone" of Iran's new youth movement. While Mosaic's own Jalal Ghazi is skeptical, arguing well that Iran "cannot be explained in a Twitter feed", Twitter is proving its mettle in the crowded world of news distribution, and is a service that Link TV is using more and more. It remains to be seen whether Twitter can successfully foment true revolution, but we'll continue to keep an eye on Iran's young twittering generation.

 
 

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