• Understand the core values of American democracy and their relationship to the Declaration of Independence, their importance to a free and independent media, and their importance to the people who consume and produce information.
• Examine the results of a recent survey on student use of the Internet and compare their personal use with the survey’s results.
• Examine several examples of citizen journalism and evaluate its value to furthering the goals of a free press.
• Examine the use of “new media” and citizen journalism during the post-election protests in Iran and comment on their potential for creating political change in Iran.

In this two-day lesson, students will look at the phenomenon of citizen journalism and the role it played in Iran during massive public protests that followed the June 12, 2009 presidential election. They will examine how the use of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are filling in the news void left after the Iranian government barred mainstream media coverage after the election. Students will take a critical look at the effectiveness and reliability of this new media on reporting the news and promoting political activism in Iran. They will then develop their own citizen journalism report. This lesson provides students ample background information on the historic roots of a free press and the use of citizen journalism. Teachers can present this information in ways and to whatever degree they feel appropriate for their students and their class schedule.

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian educator and philosopher, coined the phrase “The Medium is the Message.” He meant that it’s not so much the content in a message that is important, but the medium or way in which it is carried. Watching an event with sound and audio has greater impact than reading about the same account. One of the earliest examples of this in American media is Paul Revere’s etching of the Boston Massacre which shows “defenseless” colonists being shot dead in the streets of Boston by members of the British army. If one looks closely, it even looks like Mr. Revere placed slight smiles (or at least expressions of indifference) on the faces of the British soldiers.

Fast-forward to the 20th century and televisions coverage of the Vietnam War and the anti-war protests at home. Images sent to Americans’ living rooms of seemingly endless combat and senseless brutality generated an impression of a military policy in trouble. It also presented an impression of a political party in disarray at the 1968 Democratic National Convention as police clashed with anti-war protesters in the streets of Chicago. Young people chanted, “The whole world is watching!” and a nation asked, “How could the party in power continue to lead if it couldn’t control its own convention?”

Day 1 Procedure:
Opening Activity:

1. Divide students into small groups of 4-5 students each and distribute handout Core Values of American Constitutional Democracy. Have students review the handout and then address the questions at the end in their small group.
2. As a class discuss the Core Values, the rights and responsibilities that surround them, and how they affect a free and independent press in your own community.

Activity Two:

1. Keeping students in their small groups, distribute the handout Citizen Journalism to all students.  Review the directions with them.  (Students could view these websites and take their notes as homework to prepare for the class discussion.)
2. Have students go to the Pew Internet & American Life Project survey report entitled, Teen Content Creators and Consumers and have them review the “Summary of Findings.” (These four pages could be downloaded, printed, and distributed to students as an option.) 
3. Then, direct students to go to the NewsHour segment The Rise of Citizen Journalism.  It is highly recommended that students watch the streaming video of the segment while also reviewing the transcript as it contains visual as well as audio information. 

Day 2 Procedure:

1. Divide the class into two groups.
2. One group will watch Iranian Protesters Mobilize on Social Media Web Sites and should use Student Handout: NewsHour Analysis 1, the other group will watch this Al Jazeera piece, Iran's Internet Revolution and should use Student Handout: NewsHour Analysis 2. Have both groups view the news analysis stories and take notes on the discussion questions. (This can be assigned as homework the day before.)
3. Regroup students into groups of four with two members of each of the two original groups in the new groups.
4. Have students discuss their findings following the group analysis questions on their handouts.
5. Have students write an opinion article on the final question in the Group Analysis Question section. For more tech-savvy students have them put together their own citizen journalism piece on their thoughts of the use of new media in Iran.