Citizen journalists play critical role in Iran

With the mainstream media banned from Iran, coverage of the protests is now left to the protesters.

For Jason Barnett, founder and executive director of "The Uptake," it's an amazing thing to watch.

"Having that ability to express what's happening on the streets of your own city in your own country is really important," he says.  "I don't think the world would know what's going on if it wasn't for them."

"The Uptake" is a Minnesota-based organization that trains citizen journalists to tell stories using video.  Barnett says his organization had about 100 people covering last year's Republican National Convention, with an emphasis on the riots.

"Citizen journalism is a very powerful, very powerful tool," Barnett says.

Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, says the role of the citizen journalist in Iran is critical right now.

"But the biggest problem with them is that it's very difficult to verify," she says.  "Verify their accuracy, verify that they're what they appear to be, verify that the people who say they're posting it are who they say they are."

One example is the powerful, disturbing video that appears to show the death of a woman named "Neda," who was allegedly shot at a protest.

The video has become an iconic image for protesters, but many questions about Neda and the video have been difficult to answer without mainstream journalists documenting the story.

"The question is going to be, of course, whether it is indeed what it purports to be," Kirtley says.  "If it is, then my prediction: this will be the image that everyone will remember from the Iran election of 2009."

Kirtley says readers should approach the videos and information coming out of Iran with a degree of skepticism. She suggests using multiple sources to verify information.

Barnett agrees, noting that citizen journalists at "The Uptake" are trained to collect the names of people in their videos and double check facts in order to add credibility to their stories.

"We just go into all the little details that people need to do to make their stories more valid and more powerful," Barnett says.

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