The Facebook Conundrum

1. The Facebook Conundrum An Ethics Case Study by Gerald, Christina, Gwen & Deni

2. Background Info - Independent • Founded by Paul Bass in 2005 • Online, hyperlocal, non-profit news organization • Covered news in New Haven, Connecticut • Technology to revive traditional journalism Paul Bass 

3. Annie Le  The Murder • On September 8, 2009, Yale doctorial candidate Annie Le went missing. • As the national media soon descended upon New Haven over the next few days, Independent realized the impact of the story • Because of their sources and familiarity with the community, they soon emerged at the forefront in the coverage • On September 13, the day Le was supposed to get married, her body was found inside the walls of the Yale lab

4. Raymond Clark  Timeliness vs. Ethics • Independenthad the inside scoop when the police gave them the name of their chief suspect, Raymond Clark • However, Bass decided not to release his name, even though they had the drop on all the other news organizations

5. Discussion #1 • Should Independent have released Clark’s name when they got it or did they do the right thing in allowing other news organizations to identify him first? • Is there any validity to Independent’s stance that, “We don’t want to be known as the paper that ruined someone’s reputation”?

6. Melissa Bailey  The Plot Thickens • The story continued to heat up as Melissa Bailey discovered a blog post written by Clark’s fiancée on Myspace. • Since it was not private, it was public information that anyone with a computer could see • Bailey chose not to use the woman’s name or photo

7. Discussion #2 • Was Bailey right to use any information found on the public Myspace blog? • Was she overly cautious in not identifying the woman or was it necessary in minimizing harm?

8. The Ex-Girlfriend • Marcia Chambers, an Independent reporter stationed in Branford, Connecticut (where Clark was from), started looking into his history before the other organizations even got his name • She discovered a police record from 2003 filed by Jessica Del Rocco, Clark’s high school girlfriend • The report said Clark confronted her and Del Rocco said he had forced her into having sex • Independent went public with the story after Clark was identified by other news outlets, but did not identify Del Rocco until she went public a week later

9. Jessica Del Rocco  On to Facebook • Bailey friend requested Del Rocco and gained access to all her status updates after Del Rocco accepted • Bailey had not identified herself as a reporter yet • Del Rocco had known her ex-boyfriend was a suspect since a few days before and had posted a status about the news that Independent saw as newsworthy color.

10. Del Rocco’s Status: • “I feel like I’m sixteen all over again. It’s just [sic] bringing back everything. It’s been a rough few days.” • She also wrote that she was “in total and utter shock” and that she “couldn’t believe this is true.”

11. The Dilemma • Bailey asked Del Rocco via Facebook for an interview and identified herself as a reporter. • Del Rocco declined the interview, but did not delete Bailey as a friend. • Bailey and Bass were torn between whether they could ethically use Del Rocco’s status in a story. • On the one hand, Del Rocco had given Bailey access to that status update. But on the other, she had declined an interview and there’s a difference between right to access and the right to publish

12. Discussion #3 • If Del Rocco accepted the friend request, do you believe her status update was fair game? • Since Del Rocco declined an interview, do you believe using her status update in a story would have been unethical?

13. Discussion #3 • Would you have identified Del Rocco if her status was used in a story? • Does the fact that Del Rocco had 350 friends change the perception that her status was “private”? • What’s the line between a right to access and the right to putting that information in a story when it comes to social media?

14. The Decision • Bass and Bailey decided to use the status update • They did not identify Del Rocco, staying consistent with the decision to not identify her in the story about the police report from 2003 • Do you believe they were justified? What would you have done differently?

15. Ethics • Social media had not fully emerged into the monster it is today • Not many precedents to draw upon before that case other than Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and Voinov murder in 2008 • “Privacy is about intrusion rather than secrecy and the question is whether you have a reasonable explanation that something is private, rather than whether you have done or said something in public,” – Siobhan Butterworth, reader’s editor of the Guardian

16. Since then… • We’ve come a long way with ethics in social media since then • AP says that although journalists can friend sources, they can never simply pull quotes or other material from social media without directly informing the subject • NPR has established their own social media team that attempts to verify information from online sources

17. Final Thoughts • With all the knowledge we know have regarding ethics and the culture of social media, do you think Bass and Bailey would have made the same decision today? • Would they still be justified in their decision today if it remained the same?