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Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old Iranian philosophy student at Tehran University and an underground musician, was on her way to participate in the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests. The protests were organized against the fraud and irregularities in the electoral process which resulted in the re-election of the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
She was accompanied by her music teacher, Hamid Panahi, in her Peugeot 206 when both of them decided to disembark from the car as its air conditioner was not working properly. While she was observing a sporadic protest (the main protest was being held a distance away), a Basiji, Abbas Kargar Javid, hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house, fired at her chest which resulted in her death within two minutes. Her final words were, “I’m burning, I’m burning!” The incident took place around 7.00 pm on June 20, 2009.
Basij is one of the five forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and IRGC is one of the two branches of the Iranian Armed Forces. America, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain have added IRGC to their list of terrorist organizations. The Iranian state TV and pro-government sources jumped in to defend the role of their militiaman and blamed Western intelligence agencies for the shooting.
However, the raw footage of Neda Agha-Soltan’s assassination went viral on social media networks and the case got widespread attention sparking renewed demonstrations. Ironically, reporters of big media houses stationed in Iran were forced to stay in their hotel rooms. In contrast, an unknown bystander outmatched the International media setting up a classic example of digital journalism by a citizen journalist. The anonymous video was awarded the prestigious George Polk Award which is given in the field of journalism. The Time magazine called it “the most widely witnessed death in human history.”
In the context of the video footage of Neda Agha-Soltan's assassination, digital journalism was crucial in recording and sharing the events leading up to her untimely demise. Her murder was recorded using a cell phone camera and posted online, where it soon gained popularity and international notice.
By distributing the video footage of Neda's murder online and avoiding traditional media censorship, citizen journalists used digital journalism profusely in bringing the world's attention to the grave nature of the Iranian regime's crackdown on dissent.
It becomes easy to comprehend that digital journalism is the practice of gathering, producing, and disseminating news and information using digital platforms and Internet technologies. It’s like your morning newspaper being delivered directly to your screen instead of your doorstep. The best part is you don’t have to wait till the next morning to know what’s happening worldwide. The power of staying informed in real-time is right at your fingertips. Simply put, it’s a dance between the old (tradition) and the new (innovation).
In ancient Rome, Acta Diurna (Daily Acts), a daily gazette carved on stone or metal, was presented in public places containing news of the day's events, public announcements, and court proceedings. This phenomenon of circa 59 BCE is considered one of the earliest examples of print journalism.
After a prolonged expedition marked by several twists and turns, in 1440, Johannes Gutenberg, a German craftsman living in Strasbourg, divulged the printing technique in his research entitled Aventur und Kunst (Enterprise and Art).
Subsequently, in 1605, Johann Carolus, a German publisher, established Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien (Account of all distinguished and commemorable stories) in Strasbourg, which became the first newspaper in history. This newspaper was published weekly, but Einkommende Zeitungen, a different German publication founded in 1650, is credited with being the world’s first daily newspaper.
In 1970, the world witnessed the first instance of digital journalism in the form of Teletext, a text-based information retrieval service. It worked by transmitting textual information alongside television broadcasts, and viewers navigated through pages of information using their TV remotes. The Columbus Dispatch, launched on July 1, 1980, is the world’s first online newspaper. However, Bruce Parrello, in 1974, had already launched a newspaper, News Report, on the PLATO system. PLATO was an early computer-based education system developed at the University of Illinois, offering interactive coursework, messaging, and multiplayer gaming in the 1960s and 1970s.
Launched in 1993, Nando (News and Observer), evolved into the first professional news site using Bulletin Board System (BBS) technology. Afterward, with the arrival of commercial web browsers like Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, news outlets started having a presence on the World Wide Web.
The catastrophic earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, claimed the lives of nearly 316,000 people other than causing a total damage of approximately USD 8.5 billion. The images and videos of the widespread devastation stirred people globally as they started circulating on social media with heartwrenching captions and information.
Katie Couric, a renowned American journalist then associated with CBS News, leveraged the power of live streaming to provide real-time coverage of the disaster. She used Qik (later acquired by Skype in 2011 for USD 150 million) to offer an unfiltered glimpse of the unfolding events while narrating harrowing survival stories and asking for humanitarian assistance and aid. It is one of the earliest cases where any journalist used live streaming to demonstrate the power of digital journalism.
Live streaming journalism came to prominence when award-winning journalist and media icon Anderson Cooper of CNN used a dedicated software Ustream (later acquired by IBM) to live stream the events during the Egyptian revolution of 2011. He allowed viewers all around the world to see the protests, run-ins with the police, and the fervent calls for democracy made by the Egyptian people via live streaming from the epicenter (Tahrir Square) of the movement. He won the Emmy Award for his groundbreaking reporting in the “Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story – Long Form” category.
During the fifty-nine days (Sep. 17 - Nov. 15, 2011) long Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, 25-year-old Tim Pool, without any qualification or background in journalism, joined the movement to report the ongoing protests against financial inequalities and corporate greed.
He bought a Parrot AR Drone (which he amusingly called ‘occucopter’) for aerial surveillance and got it connected to live streaming software to stream real-time video over the internet. During the protests, he live streamed a non-stop 21-hour coverage from Zuccotti Park and demonstrated that a common man at the right place and at the right time can outdo any traditional journalist. According to Pool, it was all about:
"giving ordinary people the same tools that these multimillion-dollar news corporations have. It provides a clever loophole around certain restrictions such as when the police block the press from taking shots of an incident."
Reporting directly from the ground, he incorporated live audience interaction through the chat feature to respond to the queries of viewers watching his live stream. During this interaction, viewers also asked him to provide footage from different locations, which he did conveniently. As for the viewers, this experiment generated a sense of closeness with the misery of many at a distant place.
Tim Pool is regarded as the forerunner of live streaming journalism because of his innovative use of technology to cover major events, demonstrations, and social movements. Currently, many popular journalists like Luke Rudkowski (founder of WeAreChange), Ford Fischer (founder of News2Share), Lizzie Phelan (Middle East expert), Aric Toler, and several others have embraced live streaming as a powerful tool for reporting. These journalists have earned broad recognition and have acted as a catalyst for countless others to emulate their example.
It is an undeniable fact that editing can easily generate opportunities for biased reporting and coverage. However, live streaming guarantees transparency and authenticity because the unfolding events are witnessed firsthand by the audiences without any filter or selective framing. This raw and unedited footage can enhance the credibility of journalists by demonstrating their commitment to presenting the truth, even when it may be uncomfortable or challenging.
Benjamin Burroughs, an assistant professor of emerging media at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, once said to The Washington Post:
"The ability to broadcast events in real-time allows for the viewing of images and events that would otherwise be filtered like incidents of police brutality or government abuse."
Moreover, everything becomes highly engaging when audiences can give feedback, ask questions through live chat, and get answers in real-time. This raw and authentic reporting is the biggest factor that can help build trust and establish the integrity of journalists.
While working independently leveraging live streaming, journalists get the freedom to pursue their desired projects without editorial meddling or constraints. This self-reliance not only generates a sense of empowerment but also opens multiple avenues of money generation.
Once live streaming journalists are successful in building a considerable audience base with impactful engagement figures, they can make money through tips, donations, subscriptions, workshops, and other useful ways. The diversification of income streams that come with creative freedom can easily lead to increased job satisfaction, motivation, and fulfillment, as well as reduced stress and burnout associated with traditional media environments.
Something that should not be forgotten is the quality of live streaming software. It can bring challenges for a journalist. That being the case, journalists should rely on dependable software to maximize their streaming experience. From a quaint village having subpar internet connectivity to bustling metropolitan areas, the spectrum of news is remarkably vast and so is the traits and attributes of journalists.
Yostream, for this reason, is an optimal selection for journalists of all technical backgrounds to broadcast their stories to the world effortlessly. This browser-based live streaming software comes with a user-friendly interface that greatly assists journalists to start streaming in just a few clicks sans complicated setups. With custom branding, they can upload their logo, select their desired theme and background, and use their favorite audio-video clips to create a live stream exuding the polished appearance of a professional news studio. Once this is done, use Yostream multistreaming capabilities to distribute your stream to all the relevant platforms. You can connect your Yostream broadcast to almost all social media platforms and video hosts. You can even embed the live streams on your website.