A pointer to an analysis article written for Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen at the University of British Columbia, on the ethical problem that social networking sites created for reporters — digital door-stepping.
The case it worked from was the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, when students turned to social networking sites to share what had happened and to grieve. “Reporters were quick to sign up for Facebook accounts to find people touched by the campus shootings,” the article ran. “This digital door stepping provoked a wave of resentment from students, as if the reporters were eavesdropping on conversations between friends.” The physical comparison was the point: the campus itself was swamped, with CNN alone sending 100 staff to Blacksburg, and students found the intrusion into their grief uncomfortable. 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.”
The argument was that resolving these dilemmas starts with understanding how people actually use and relate to sites such as Facebook or MySpace, rather than treating what is posted there as material simply because it is reachable.