The Iran Election and Social Media The New News Revolution

Analysis by Emily Luger, Nielsen Online

The Iranian election is yet another watershed moment in the ongoing evolution of news and media, further blurring the lines between being, reporting, and following the story. In the two weeks since the controversy and conflict surrounding the election, a number of insights have emerged about how the Internet and social media continue to be a transforming force for the News industry. Initial Nielsen analysis of search results provides some conclusions, while others areas beg additional probing.

• Wikipedia emerges within the top two search results for 4/5 of the leading topics.
• At least one social media source emerges within the top 10 search results for every term. In most cases, the social media sites emerge directly above a traditional, major news source, such as WSJ.com.

Google Search Results: Est. 2:30 PM Thursday, June 18, 2009
Rank	Iran	Iran Protest	Iran Election	Moussavi	Ahmadinejad
1	Wikipedia	MSNBC	Wikipedia	Wikipedia	WSJ
2	BBC	MSNBC	Yahoo	Earthtimes.org	Wikipedia
3	Boston.com	Yahoo	Boston.com	CNN	Ahmadinejad.ir
4	YahooNews	AlJezeera	MSNBC	Presstv.ir	YouTube
5	InfoPlease	GlobalVoices	CBS	Ft.com	Yahoo
6	IranDaily	WashingtonTimes	Presstv.ir	Economist.com/blogs	Boing Boing
7	Tehran.edu	AFP Google Article	NY Times	Middleeast.about.com	Politico.com
8	Memory.loc.gov	NY Times	BBC	Gsd.harvard	CNN
9	Books.Google.com	Riehlworldview.com	HuffingtonPost	Personaldemocracy	Time.com
10	Guardian	Rightwingnews.com	YouTube	Washingtonindependent	Google Video
11		Sdnn.com	WSJ	Propeller.com	Aljezeera
12		BBC	SFGate	NY Times	Iranian.ws
13		Commentary	CNN		Washington Post
14		iran.whyweprotest.net	Guardian.co.uk		Reuters
15		Washington Post	Mashable		Globalsecurity.org
16		Theage.com.au	Foxnews		MSNBC
17		Euronews.net			Stopahmadinejad

In a follow-up snapshot on June 24, a marked shift takes place, reaffirming the Iran election story as a watershed moment for online news and communications:

• YouTube emerges within the top 10 search results for all search terms in the second week.
• Wikipedia remains within the top three search results in the second week for four of the five search terms.
• Twitter emerges within the top 20 search results in week two – specifically, the Twitter results for Moussavi and Ahmadinejad. Of course, traditional news sources such as the BBC (and CNN, in week two) bubble to the top of search results, as do general information sites such as Yahoo.com and Infoplease.com.

Google Search Results: Est. 3:30 PM Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Rank	Iran	Iran Protest	Iran Election	Moussavi	Ahmadinejad
1	Wikipedia	Minneapolis Star	CNN	Wikipedia	Wikipedia
2	CIA.gov	Telegraph.co.uk	Boston.com	Earthtimes.org	Ahmadinejadjr.
3	Topics.nyimes	Iran.whyweprotest.net	Mashable	Presstv.ir	Guardian
4	YouTube	Guardian	Wikipedia	CNN	YouTube
5	Boston.com	English.aljazeera	Theledeblogs. nytimes.com	BoingBoing	MiamiHerald.com
6	Guardian	BBC	Yahoo	FT.com	Csmonitor
7	BBC	NPR	Guardian	Cjr.org	Yahoo
8	Iran-Daily	Albawaba.com	Presstv.ir	YouTube	TIME
9	Yahoo	MSNBC.com	Huffington Post	Attackerman. firedoglake	CNN
10	Infoplease	YouTube	Washington Post	Blogs.tnr.com	Globalsecurity.org
11		Yahoo News	YouTube	washingtonindependent	English.aljazeera
12		FoxNews	Energyoutlook. blogspot	Blog.archpaper.com	Twitter.com/ ahmadinejad
13		Reuters	Lewrockwell.com	Blog.beliefnet.com	Politico.com
14		Globalvoicesonline	BBC	Twitter.com/ mousavi1388	NY Times
15		Cryptome.org	WSJ	Monstersandcritics.com	Washington Post
16		CNN	FOX News		MSNBC
17		CBS News			Stopahmadinejad

What this means is that general human curiosity is driving people to look to all available sources for information.  The conflict in Iran presenting the latest and perhaps most sophisticated example of how the world has changed for journalists, the media and increasingly active media consumers alike.

So what else do the search results signify? Is consumer generated media (news by the people, for the people) eclipsing traditional sources? Are people more frequently linking to Wikipedia than the New York Times for information about Iran? What does it mean that Mashable is among the top three search results for “Iran Election?” What role does Twitter play? As major events break (Iran, Health Care, Michael Jackson) we will continue to dive into the data and present answers to these questions, both through our own analysis and through feedback and opinions of others. After all, if weve learned anything in the last few weeks, it’s that the power is in the hands of the people… What do you think?