AT CNN, more than 2,000 reports from 'citizen journalists' related to Iran have been received since the day after the election, and more than 80 'fully verified' videos and photos have been aired, spokesman Nigel Pritchard said.
CNN also has reported on content carried by Twitter and other social networking sites, but 'always placing it in context for viewers,' he said.
TWO separate videos posted on YouTube and Facebook following street battles Saturday in Teheran showed a young woman with blood pouring from her nose and mouth as people - shouting in Farsi - frantically tried to help her.
The YouTube video described the location in central Teheran and said the woman, identified on the video as 'Neda,' had been fatally shot.
In most cases - when the battles are big and the stakes are high - journalists from around the world are there. But in the possibly history-shaping struggles now unfolding in Iran, the international media has been blocked from its normal front-line role and is quickly making adjustments to counter an official ban on firsthand reporting.
Instead of the main dispatches coming from the scenes, the equation has been greatly reversed. Many major news outlets now rely on phone calls, e-mails and Web chats - and other methods - to contact Iranian protesters and officials for information that bolsters the reports from colleagues in Teheran, who must remain in their offices.
The media clampdown also has been a test on other fronts: challenging the ability of authorities to control information in the Internet age and requiring editors and journalists to quickly decide what to pursue from the avalanche of rumours, tips and observations on social networking sites.
Some news organisations have added Farsi-speaking staff members to their usual coverage teams and stepped up attention to websites such as Twitter for comments and images that - if deemed credible - offer a wider view on the unfolding events.
Thomas Warhover, an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, calls the social networks a 'counterpart' to traditional reporting rather than a competitor.
'It's democratic impulses,' he said. 'People are going to find a way to be heard - new and exciting ways. That civil function is pretty incredible.'
An international media corps remains in Teheran - mostly Iranians who work as reporters, photographers and camera operators for international or non-Iranians news organisations. But they are now being restricted to their offices, allowed only to conduct phone interviews or cite official sources such as state broadcasters.
Iranian authorities, meanwhile, have tightened their squeeze on the Web.
Authorities have blocked websites such as Facebook, Twitter and many sites linked to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi or his backers. Text messaging has been blacked out since last week, and cell phone service in Teheran is frequently down. -- AP
