![]()
Common Core State Standard
SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support. FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 22, 2009 'Citizen journalists' help Iran protest news get past government restrictions![]() ![]() Read Iran reports with an eye toward news-gathering restrictions. Pay attention to sources and the "dateline" (city) at the top or any details at the end about where reports originated. Are government restrictions effective?
![]() The daily drama in Tehran is of special interest to Iranian-Americans and scholars here who focus on that country or region. Look for their voices.
![]() Identify other signs of electronic era journalism. How does this newspaper reflect the popularity of web use, blogs, Twitter and e-mail?
The world's hottest news location right now is also the toughest for professionals to cover. Nearly all foreign journalists had to leave Iran last week, limiting mainstream media reports about daily anti-government rallies by students and hundreds of thousands of older adults. Most journalists who traveled to Tehran, the capital, for a June 12 presidential election were given one-week visas (travel permits) -- and all extension requests were denied after massive crowds began protesting a result they see as rigged.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hard-line critic of America, was declared the overwhelming winner of a new term -- angering supporters of a reform candidate named Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims he won. The earliest protests were organized partly via Twitter, a short-message social network. The California firm that owns Twitter even delayed a maintenance shutdown because "events in Iran were tied directly to the growing significance of Twitter as an important communication and information network," co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a blog. "It made sense for Twitter . . . keep services active during this highly visible global event."
Amateur videos and professional reporting are distributed by the BBC, a British broadcast service that still has a Tehran bureau. Iranian residents are filing reports to the Associated Press, NBC, the New York Times and other media. Even they face severe restrictions, however, as the government threatens to arrest reporters doing street interviews or videotaping protests. "The government is trying to do everything it can to curtail the free dissemination of information," says Hossein Ziai, Iranian studies director at the University of California-Los Angeles.
Front Page Talking Points is written by
Felix Grabowski and Alan Stamm for NIEonline.com, Copyright 2024
Front Page Talking Points Archive►President Biden, 81, resists calls to let a younger Democrat run against Donald Trump ►Turning point: Supreme Court says presidents have 'absolute immunity' for official acts ►First Biden-Trump debate of 2024 airs Thursday from Georgia ►Health experts monitor the jump of bird flu to cows and a few farm hands, but see no wide risk ►Negro Leagues stars from a bygone era gain new standing in Major League Baseball records ►Justice Samuel Alito adds two flags to Supreme Court ethics storms ►Use of new weight-loss drugs soars among teens ►Needy families await action on bill to restore federal internet service rebates ►U.S. government may challenge concert business dominance of Live Nation and Ticketmaster |