REMEDIATING #IRANELECTION: Journalistic strategies for positioning citizen-made snapshots and text bites from the 2009 Iranian post-election conflict

TY - JOUR

T1 - REMEDIATING #IRANELECTION

T2 - Journalistic strategies for positioning citizen-made snapshots and text bites from the 2009 Iranian post-election conflict

AU - Andersen, Rune Saugmann

PY - 2012/6/1

Y1 - 2012/6/1

N2 - When mass protests and violent crackdown followed the 2009 Iranian presidential election, Western mass media found themselves in a precarious situation: eager to report on the unfolding events, but without access to them; save through snapshots and text bites posted to content-sharing sites by unknown users. Basing news coverage on such content challenged journalistic understandings of credibility as produced by professional routines, thus disturbing the foundation of epistemic authority on which professional journalism builds. Neglecting it, however, would challenge journalism's ability to portray anything at all. This article investigates how the positioning of citizen micro-journalism was textually negotiated in news reports by attributing different degrees of epistemic authority to citizen-made content. It argues that the strategies used greatly privilege the unknown image vis-à-vis the unknown verbal report. While verbal reports are treated as illustrative of communication practices or attributed doubt, images are allowed to represent the crisis, and frequently made indistinguishable from professionally produced content. Furthermore, in attributing citizen-made content to news agencies and mediation channels, the incorporation practices treat intermediation as a source of credibility. Deconstructing the process of constructing epistemologically authoritative news thus highlights how mediation, news values, source practices, and image conventions are relied on to perform credibility.

AB - When mass protests and violent crackdown followed the 2009 Iranian presidential election, Western mass media found themselves in a precarious situation: eager to report on the unfolding events, but without access to them; save through snapshots and text bites posted to content-sharing sites by unknown users. Basing news coverage on such content challenged journalistic understandings of credibility as produced by professional routines, thus disturbing the foundation of epistemic authority on which professional journalism builds. Neglecting it, however, would challenge journalism's ability to portray anything at all. This article investigates how the positioning of citizen micro-journalism was textually negotiated in news reports by attributing different degrees of epistemic authority to citizen-made content. It argues that the strategies used greatly privilege the unknown image vis-à-vis the unknown verbal report. While verbal reports are treated as illustrative of communication practices or attributed doubt, images are allowed to represent the crisis, and frequently made indistinguishable from professionally produced content. Furthermore, in attributing citizen-made content to news agencies and mediation channels, the incorporation practices treat intermediation as a source of credibility. Deconstructing the process of constructing epistemologically authoritative news thus highlights how mediation, news values, source practices, and image conventions are relied on to perform credibility.

U2 - 10.1080/17512786.2012.663593

DO - 10.1080/17512786.2012.663593

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1751-2786

VL - 6

SP - 317

EP - 336

JO - Journalism Practice

JF - Journalism Practice

IS - 3

ER -