Privacy is one of the most talked about moral panics of the information age...
“How do you know that?” “Because it’s all over facebook!”. In the past few years the majority of our knowledge about other people and events has come from online and social media.
Privacy is a thing of the past, with the youth of today unaware that it was ever normality. As Mark Zuckerberg said in January 2010 “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6966628/Facebooks-Mark-Zuckerberg-says-privacy-is-no-longer-a-social-norm.html)
Digitalisation has revolutionised many professions; Journalism is an example of a job that social media had changed immensely. No longer is it imperative to be the first one on the scene, instead computer skills are needed to weed out any information available on social networking sites.
“Whether it is the latest celebrity gossip, candid shots or getting pictures of the latest car crash victim, journalists in newsrooms around the world are now scouring social networking sites for their stories. But questions are being raised about whether the increasingly standard practice of Facebook journalism is an ethical one.
Facebook places the responsibility for privacy firmly on their users by allowing users to determine who can see what information they list on their profile. Facebook’s privacy policy warns users to be aware of what information they post on Facebook as “this information may become publicly available”. (http://www.newsphobia.net/?p=25)
As always there are two sides to this debate, one enables the journalist but compromises the subjects’ privacy while the other means a less detailed but fairer story.
A tragic scenario that I recall, where this debate is particularly relevant, was that of an Exeter uni student dying after excessive drinking in a bar crawl in 2006. He had just started university and was taking part in the night as part of an initiation to the golf society.
“Gavin Britton's body, dressed in fancy dress, was found slumped in a street”
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-419496/Student-drunk-death-pub-crawl.html#ixzz1GZn1OG5O)
Around the time of this tragic event; Facebook privacy settings were less strict and as a result journalists pounced on his pictures and wall posts. As a student myself I am aware that drinking is a very normal part of the university experience, I am also aware that the pictures one has on their Facebook, Myspace and Bebo pages do NOT reflect reality as they are nearly all taken on nights out or special events.
Journalists on this case failed to acknowledge this though; plastering pictures of the teen downing shots across the press and online; labeling him as a drunk, party animal and referencing a quote from his Myspace “If you’re not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space", (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-419496/Student-drunk-death-pub-crawl.html) most likely done in a bid to create more public uproar surrounding binge drinking. We all know no one writes “I love staying in and studying” on their profiles. Yes, this was a horrific occurrence which could have been avoided but the same activities are happening all over the world every night. This example illustrates how an undoubtedly wholesome normal teenager’s life was taken away due to alcohol; but far worse than that – as a result of journalism, he will always be remembered as dying in an undignified manner.
“Death amongst teenagers has also been caught up in social networking debates. The copycat suicides of seven young people in a Welsh town have sparked fears of an internet death cult.” (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641301942) In 2008 7 people from the same area in Wales all connected via Bebo, hung themselves in a copycat suicide mission. “Internet memorial sites for the dead have also been created, leading police to fear they wanted to achieve "fame".
Social networking sites increasingly stay active after the owner dies; kept going with tribute wall posts and tags. I personally think this is disrespectful and cheapens the death in a way. However I have recently learned that although you can shut down your Facebook account it never goes for good...so without knowing it, we’re all destined to live through our Facebook profiles forever?
No comments:
Post a Comment