The major role social media has played in the coverage of the Iranian conflict has exposed a generation gap between Millennials and other journalists. Due to censorship and communication bans imposed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration, there has literally been no other way for reporters to observe developments in real-time or communicate with people over there, correspondents or citizens, except via sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

There have been scattered reports of email communication as well, but this creates a delay in the transfer of the information. Americans have come to expect immediate news since the rise of the Internet and 24 hour news networks, making this style of communication simply not good enough.

This has presented a major problem for veterans of the journalism and news world. Traditional interviewing, research, observing, taking notes, and source verification will always be apart of the way that people write about the news, but the most obvious difference between old-style reporting and the kind of reporting Millennials are easily able to do is at the very beginning of the process.

Conventional reporting starts with an idea, inkling or observation that is then followed by investigation. The findings are then documented and presented to the public as fact, precise information.

Young journalists today are beginning to approach journalism differently and with great ease. Stories written by this demographic are increasingly beginning with documentation. Regular people upload a video onto YouTube, often recorded on cell phones, showing an event, and then the reporter’s primary job is to put it into context.

Verification is still important, however the process is very different. In the Millennial world, it is ok to post a story on a blog that has not been completely verified, so long as that has been made clear. Articles end in questions asking for thoughts and contributions from readers, many of whom end up contributing to the story, verifying the documentation, or even adding onto the information given. A fantastic example of this is on the New York Time’s blog The Lede, seen here on the 8:30pm post from June 25, 2009.

All of this points towards a more community based and collective form of reporting; an instinctual process for Millennials who have grown up with Web 2.0,  and social media and social networking Web sites. The ultimate result of reporting stories this way is that they are subject to much more accountability than news written and published in the traditional manner.

The Iran turmoil has essentially mandated that the news be delivered in this collective way, with sources not verifiable the way seasoned reporters are used to. For them, broadcasting the story about the protests still underway in the Islamic Republic almost completely based on details from Twitter and Facebook is quite uncomfortable. This has been demonstrated by the way CNN slowly set up its “Iran Desk” and carefully put boxes on the bottom of the screen reading “unverified material.”

The network has been using these sites to gather opinions during their broadcasts, but never for information like this. The results were such a deviation from the norm that clips made into a segment on The Daily Show, which can be viewed here.

Obviously the role collective news reporting conducted through social media is still developing, and it may be a while before it finds a niche inside the journalism world. But the amazing success of Wikipedia, a site for information on just about anything that can be edited or contributed to by anyone, shows how important this technology is likely to get.

The good news for Scoop44 is that Millennials certainly have the edge.

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