Iranian blog portrays presidential elections
Contrary to most countries, in Iran blogs have become the primary source for reliable information for the general public. Due to the extensive control over media and other information outlets by the Iranian government the Iranian public often turn to blogs that have managed to fly under the censorship radar in order to get news and information. For this reason I thought it would be interesting to compare an Iranian news blog story with a Western media story. The next comparison will take a story and compare how it is reported by a blog and by the Iranian state media.
I took a Reuters article “Iran to Hold Presidential Election in June 2009” (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSDAH72494220080907) and a blog entry found on Tehran Post titled “8 Months til Iranian Presidential Election” (http://ord-per.blogspot.com/2008/09/8-months-to-iranian-presidential.html).
Since the story that I chose is about Iran itself, the blog offered a much more in depth look at the situation on the ground.
The blog discusses the inner workings of Iranian politics – that the ‘reformists’ are trying to spur competition between the moderate party (Khatami) and hardline party (Ahmadinjhad). The article on Reuters does not even come close to level of detail presented in the blog, instead they give a general conclusive statement.
The blog unlike the Reuters article gives an opinion on the situation – that Khatami’s return as president would be a bad thing for Iran).
Both sources of media mention a third candidate as a plausible rival to Khatami and Ahmadinijhad. However, they mention different names. The blog’s plausible third candidate is a name that I have never heard mentioned in any Western Media (Mehdi Karrobi, a parliament spokesperson). Whereas, the article’s third plausible candidate is the mayor Tehran.
Another interesting difference was the issues that the two stories focused on. The blog focuses on honesty, reform, democracy and the actual functioning of the country. Whereas Reuters mainly focuses on Iran’s international relations, meaning solely the nuclear showdown with the west, an issue the blog doesn’t not mention at all. Finally, they both mention a key internal issue – the Iranian economy.
Contrary to most countries, in Iran blogs have become the primary source for reliable information for the general public. Due to the extensive control over media and other information outlets by the Iranian government the Iranian public often turn to blogs that have managed to fly under the censorship radar in order to get news and information. For this reason I thought it would be interesting to compare an Iranian news blog story with a Western media story. The next comparison will take a story and compare how it is reported by a blog and by the Iranian state media.
I took a Reuters article “Iran to Hold Presidential Election in June 2009” (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSDAH72494220080907) and a blog entry found on Tehran Post titled “8 Months til Iranian Presidential Election” (http://ord-per.blogspot.com/2008/09/8-months-to-iranian-presidential.html).
Since the story that I chose is about Iran itself, the blog offered a much more in depth look at the situation on the ground.
The blog discusses the inner workings of Iranian politics – that the ‘reformists’ are trying to spur competition between the moderate party (Khatami) and hardline party (Ahmadinjhad). The article on Reuters does not even come close to level of detail presented in the blog, instead they give a general conclusive statement.
The blog unlike the Reuters article gives an opinion on the situation – that Khatami’s return as president would be a bad thing for Iran).
Both sources of media mention a third candidate as a plausible rival to Khatami and Ahmadinijhad. However, they mention different names. The blog’s plausible third candidate is a name that I have never heard mentioned in any Western Media (Mehdi Karrobi, a parliament spokesperson). Whereas, the article’s third plausible candidate is the mayor Tehran.
Another interesting difference was the issues that the two stories focused on. The blog focuses on honesty, reform, democracy and the actual functioning of the country. Whereas Reuters mainly focuses on Iran’s international relations, meaning solely the nuclear showdown with the west, an issue the blog doesn’t not mention at all. Finally, they both mention a key internal issue – the Iranian economy.
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