Jonathan Gorman, the admin of a Facebook page, admitted to creating a hoax that Bill Cosby had died after the post gained significant attention. Over 315,000 people reacted angrily to the false news. Gorman found the widespread belief in his hoax to be entertaining and a demonstration of people's gullibility. He took credit for the hoax and said he did it for laughs.
1. As "Bill Cosby Dead" became a trending
topic, Facebook group owner Gorman was
forced to come clean.
"My name is Jonathan Gorman and I am the
page admin/creator. With the recent
slowdown of likes and high amount of
attention from news sources. . .
I have come to the conclusion that I should
tell you all the truth. Bill Cosby is not
deceased," he wrote late Tuesday. "I made
around 315 THOUSAND people angry."
"I love you all for making me
laugh at your stupidity for the
past day and a half. You're
great," Gorman wrote.
2. AN ETHICO-LEGAL PARADOX Legal principle
Criminal law
Common law
Contracts and
commercial law
State regulation
Business Interest
Public Interest
Ethical principles
Greater good
Right-to-know
Do no harm
• Law and regulation tend to trail
innovation and application.
• No prior knowledge or scrutiny of
apps
• Some uses can be problematic
• Does the public interest ever justify
breaking the law for greater ethical
reasons?
• The grey areas where law and ethics
collide
TECHNO-LEGAL TIME-GAP
3. • Media Freedom &
Regulation
• Free speech
• Commercial Speech
• Hate speech
• Privacy / Data Privacy
• The ethico-legal paradox
• Accountability
• UGC
• Liability
• Surveillance
• Commercial
• Social
• Suppression
• Counter Surveillance
CLOSING THE GAP?
BRIDGING THE PARADOX?
• Convergence + Speed
• Social & Mobile
• New applications coming on stream
• Massive amounts of new and
improved data
• A techno-legal time-gap
• Legal, regulation , custom and practice
• Applications and Arguments
• Political economy
• Ethico-legal issues & paradox
• Privacy
• Power & influence
• Democracy
http://digital-paradox.net/
4. IF THEY CAN, THEN SO CAN WE
The Sun last week said it was
"absurd" to continue the British black
out and defended publishing two
photos of the naked prince on the
grounds that they were freely
available across the internet,
including on the websites of
mainstream media organisations
such as CNN.
If material is in the public domain and
everyone is talking about it, yet we ignore it,
we might be seen as missing out on an
important element of a news story and failing
to inform our users.
• Sun Editorial
Old rules no longer apply
• Harry‟s Privates y v Royal
Privacy
• Right to know invoked
• Becomes a „free speech‟
argument for British tabloids
5. HARRY NO-PANTS IS FAIR GAME
• Public interest defence
• Harry compromised his
own privacy
• We respect the privacy of
the respectable royals
(Wills & Kate)
• Laddish behaviour
• Just doing normal stuff
(according to friends)
There is a clear public interest in publishing
the Harry pictures, in order for the debate
around them to be fully informed.
The photos have potential implications for
the Prince‘s image representing Britain
around the world.
• The Sun‘s editorial defence
"Prince Harry. Give him a break. He may be on the public payroll
one way or another, but the public loves him, even to enjoy Las
Vegas.‖
Rupert Murdoch‘s tweet
6. A NEW MEME – ABANDON PRIVACY FOR PRIVATES
• People prepared to give up
privacy to back Harry
• A new „Rule Britannia‟
• Tabloid media uses it as an
excuse to push the boundary of
„taste‟ under cloak of public
interest
7. MILITARISING THE MEME
D Squadron, the King‘s Royal Hussars, posing
naked with tanks
in Helmand, Afghanistan
#salute4harry
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2194521/Prince-Harry-Facebook-group-strips-support-party-loving-royal-naked-Vegas-photos-furore.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
8. “WHAT STAYS IN VEGAS?” • A breach of a code of silence
• Who breached the code?
• Which code takes
precedence?
• Story now takes precedence
for the news media
• Gossip as reportage
"Las Vegas is about adult freedom," a
spokeswoman for the [tourist] board told
USA Today. "It's important for friends to
know what activities can be shared
publicly and what activities are protected
by the code."
9. DETAILS AND NAMES LINKED TO HARRY
• Paparazzi
• „fake‟ Facebook accounts
• „protected‟ Twitter accounts
• Fan Pages on Tumblr
• Social Surveillance of Harry
has been unleashed
http://www.christianpost.com/news/prince-harrys-fans-harrassed-for-secrets-on-
spike-wells-facebook-account-80664/
10. A HASTY CORRECTION • Verification – after
publication
• Authentic - questionable
• Voyeurisitc view of a very
public private life
• Vicarious pleasures /
entertainment / values
• Race to the bottom?
Harry‟s legs
Christianpost.com
changes its mind about a
source
11. NEW TIN, SAME SARDINES?
• How public is Facebook?
• How do you manage contacts
who you know on Facebook?
• Can you use false profiles on
Facebook to gather
information?
• Is it OK to discuss ongoing
court cases on Facebook?
• Courtroom Tweeting
• Twit Def and stupid tweets
• Personal v Professional
social media profiles
For the most part, the five main issues
that are causing the most problems, are
issues that have always been problematic
– they have just been transplanted into
digital scenarios instead.
These five issues are:
1. copyright
2. verification
3. protecting sources
4. gathering information using false
pretences
5. contempt of court
Is this all there is to it?
Claire Wardle Networked Knowledge blog
http://clairewardle.com/2011/09/21/journalism-ethics-in-a-social-media-world/
12. WHEN IS A BEER AD NOT A BEER AD?
• Sponsor responsible for user
comments on social media sites
• Encouraging comments as a form
of advertising and value add for the
brand
• Facebook‟s commercial rules?
• Political economy and ethics /
liability
When a user ―likes‖ a brand post, or
expresses a view in a comment on a brand
page, they push the brand out into their
peer network attached to their own identity.
For VB to claim that User Comments aren‘t
advertisements is to suggest that they
don‘t create value for the brand.
http://theconversation.edu.au/ruling-on-alcohol-brands-facebook-sites-will-shake-up-social-media-marketing-8974
stricter monitoring of Facebook pages by
brands was against the ―spirit of social
media‖ and ―commercially unviable‖.
Advertisers could abandon Facebook as an
interactive advertising channel because of the
difficulty monitoring conversation on their pages.
13. SMIRNOFF – ENABLING, NOT ADVERTISING
• Do Facebook users
understand the dynamics or
are they being used as useful
idiots?
With several thousand images online, each
time a fan tags, likes or comments an
image, it pushes that image out into the
news feeds of their hundreds of friends.
These images have a targeted and
promotional character.
They embed the brand within the mediation
of nightlife on Facebook.
A precedent (appeal pending) regarding
liability for ethical behaviour in social
media
14. WHAT ABOUT RACISM – „OFFENSIVE HUMOUR‟
• Another free-speech
argument?
• Facebook eventually
closed it
• US v Australian
jurisdiction
• Invoking 1st
Amendment
The Aboriginal Memes Facebook
page carried hundreds of images
indigenous Australians as drunks and
welfare cheats.
The Australian Communications and
Media Authority is investigating
Race Discrimination Commissioner
Helen Szoke said it could breach
Australian anti-discrimination laws.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Facebook-removes-racist-Aboriginal-Memes-
15. WHO IS A JOURNALIST?
• Barriers to entry falling
• Are bloggers part of the
journalism community?
• Is there a useful
demarcation between
professional and amateur
• Should the rules be the
same or different for
professional and amateur
reporters?
The ‗democratization‘ of media –
technology that allows citizens to engage
in journalism and publication of many kinds
– blurs the identity of journalists and the
idea of what constitutes journalism. (Ward)
http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/resources/digital-media-ethics/
16. To what extent existing media ethics is
suitable for today‘s and tomorrow‘s news
media that is immediate, interactive and
―always on‖ – a journalism of amateurs and
professionals?
Stephen Ward, Digital Media Ethics
http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/resources/digital-media-ethics/
17. DIGITAL FAULTLINES
Unresolved tensions between
‗traditional‘ journalism and the
technological capacities of
‗News 2.0‘
Heightening tension between
local and global journalism
accuracy, pre-publication
verification, balance,
impartiality, and gate-keeping
18. Online, it was almost as if the reporters
were not just camping outside the dorm,
but barging into the rooms and leafing
through personal journals.
―You have reporters that will create a
Facebook identity just to get students‘
contact information, or who will start an
online memorial to get people posting for a
story. It‘s just inappropriate,‖ Virginia Tech
student journalist Courtney Thomas told
The Guardian newspaper.
http://www.journalismethics.ca/social-media-poses-digital-dilemmas-for-journalists.html
VIRGINIA TECH –
APRIL 2007
• False pretences
19. ANONYMITY ONLINE
• Allowing anonymous
comments on news sites
• Verification of Twitter &
other accounts as
genuine
Traditional journalistic codes of ethics warn
that people may use anonymity to take
unfair or untrue ―potshots‖ at other people,
for self-interested reasons.
Journalists should avoid anonymous
sources in most cases
Online anonymity is easy and provides a
cover for uncivil discourse
20. THE NEED FOR SPEED
• Speed over accuracy
• No prior restraint
• Correction after
publication
a media that thrives on speed and
―sharing‖ creates the potential for great
harm
21. TWITTER
• Should we really be
trying for objectivity
here?
• Is Twitter for
professional or
personal use?
• Should reporters
separate the personal
and the professional?
• What about being
„genuine‟ in social
media spaces?
One of the key contemporary journalistic
dilemmas — how to define or redefine
objectivity in the social media age — is
being played out live on Twitter.
Reporters‘ use of the platform to express
feelings and opinions on a range of issues
has raised red flags about professional
conduct and bias.
(Juie Posetti http://newmatilda.com/2009/06/16/twitters-
difficult-gift-journalism)
22. THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL
WITHIN THE SOCIAL
• Can we continue
the analog pretence
that journalists
don‟t have or
shouldn‟t have
opinions?
Is Twitter an ethical and credible source?
Should journalists have two Facebook
accounts?
Do newsrooms need an ethics code for
social media?
Is it ethical for journalists to ―like‖ political
campaigns?
Greg Wingert / Working Press
http://workingpress.spjnetwork.org/2010/10/05/social-media-boom-spurs-ethics-dilemmas/
23. A REVIVAL OF PARTISAN JOURNALISM
• A strengthening of the public
sphere?
• A further entrenching of elite
opinion?
• The cementing of inbuilt and
unconscious bias?
Blogging is about speaking one‘s mind.
Traditionally reporters have been expected
to cover events impartially.
Increasingly online (citizen?) journalists
see themselves as partisans or activists for
causes or political movements, and reject
the idea of objective or neutral analysis.
(Ward)
24. THE NEW FRONTIERS
The ethical challenge is to redefine what
independent journalism in the public
interest means for a media where many
new types of journalism are appearing and
where basic principles are being
challenged.
(Ward)
26. NEW WAYS TO INVADE PRIVACY
• The right to be forgotten v.
the right to do business
• Technical solutions like “Do
no track” code
27. BEHOLDEN TO FUNDERS
• This has always been an
issue
• The political economy of
journalism
• What about trusts and
philanthropy
• Who pays the piper calls the
tune
• Freedom of speech and
freedom of the press are not
the same thing
How independent are not-for-profit
newsrooms if they rely on funding from a
limited number of donors?
What happens if the newsroom intends to
report a negative story about one of its
main funders?
From whom will these newsrooms take
money?
How transparent will they be about who
gives them money and under what
conditions?
(Ward)
28. CITIZEN JOURNALISM AND UGNC
• User-generated
news-like content
• The conditions of
citizen journalism
• Eye-witness and
social media
verification
Should citizen journalists be required to be
balanced and impartial?
Should shield laws and other protections /
privileges be given to bloggers, citizen
journalists and other non-official reporters?
Editor's Notes
One of the key contemporary journalistic dilemmas — how to define or redefine objectivity in the social media age — is being played out live on Twitter. Reporters’ use of the platform to express feelings and opinions on a range of issues has raised red flags about professional conduct and bias.(posetti http://newmatilda.com/2009/06/16/twitters-difficult-gift-journalism)
Newsrooms need to put in place a process for citizen-supplied material, which may be bogus or biased. How shall sources be identified? How much vetting is necessary for different sorts of stories? Should citizen contributors be made aware of the newsroom’s editorial standards? (Ward http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/resources/digital-media-ethics/)