Funeral Reflection in International Narratives

The international mainstream media narratives, which have consistently attempted to confine Iranian developments within their own particular frameworks, were forced this time to acknowledge the massive scale of this epic when confronted with surging waves of crowds. Alongside these political analyses, other news giants such as Reuters and Al Jazeera reflected different dimensions of this million-strong movement. However, the ground reality became more apparent when independent international journalists entered the scene to break news boycotts and neutralize the rumors of hostile media outlets. Another turning point in this media confrontation was the spontaneous documentary by Ken O'Keefe, a former U.S. Army rifleman and anti-war activist; by recording a selfie video at the heart of Tehran's prayer grounds and in the midst of crowds estimated in captions between 15 to 20 million people, he sharply questioned the legitimacy of the West.