History has always been written by the victors. In the distant past this was often because no survivors of the losing side were left alive to tell.
These days the advent of broadcast technology has allowed for both sides to get their stories to the masses.
When the fallout of the Iranian elections was happening, the Iranian government tried to stop the spread of news by attempting to block access to these broadcast media, text, mobile phones and the internet.
Twitter emerged as a key conduit for locals to be able to get 140 character snippets of information out, uncensored and definitely not what the government wanted people to hear.
Reading tweets today (24th Sept 09) saw a proliferation of people talking about the police actions against protesters in Pittsburgh.
Accompanied by a lot of the tweets were links to video and news stories covering the event. Youtube carried plenty of videos made by people at the locations where demonstrations were being held.
This widespread saturation of user generated content means that government officials, the police and others involved in these confrontations are more exposed than ever to what happens and the ensuing debate and discussion will have real evidence (especially video) to back up claims from either side.
Propaganda is much more difficult in these days of Twitter, Youtube and Civilian Reporters.
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