Social Networks and Tragedy

The issue we've been discussing has hit close to home. I rec'd this message from a former student:

Hey Katy-

I don't know if you still run the blog for 202 anymore, but if so I thought you might find this situation interesting. Channel 3000 posted a link to Brittany Zimmerman's MySpace page next to her picture and the story of her homicide. I, for one, find this to be completely rude and unethical. Thought it might spark some conversation for your class.

What do you think? Connect this to the earlier post on Facebook at UMass.

Photo editing and ethics

I'm going cross-blog here for an interesting note on ethics in photo editing. Check out this post from my advanced class. What do you think of the choices made here? Which photo is the one you would run if you were in charge?

Heckling at Home

Excellent blog addition from a 202er:

1. read this CapTimes story about an alleged crime in the dorms
2. read this response to it on the Critical Badger blog
3. digest the debate in the blog comments
4. weigh in through our comments

The poster sent this as an accompaniment to the Discussion Arena reading on digital heckling. What do you think of the response here?

Race and crime

When I ask you what distinguishes online journalism, some of you answer a key is the space to do more than you could in another medium. This is an amazing and heart-rending illustration of that. I'd love to see them go beyond the blog now, to put some depth to the breadth, particularly by using audio or video to give voice to families that have so often been invisible. I think it's also interesting how on-scene reporting can deepen the kind of data you'd find in everyblock and how race played in different ways for the audience.

NIU Shootings

As raw as the events are, I'd like you to think about the Northern Illinois mass shootings and the media implications.
Check out news organizations:
- Chicago Tribune
- Washington Post
- New York Times
- CNN
just to name a few. How are they handling the coverage? What's the level of sensitivity? Of information? Are you getting insights? Or repeats of the same information? How are they handling the questions of mental health? Of victims' stories? What writing has resonated most with you? What images? What things shouldn't have appeared?

Then I want you to look at the strat comm angles. I know this seems odd, but this is a story that was handled by PR people, the university communications staff at NIU. Go to their Web site and look at the information. Did they provide enough info and do it quickly enough? Look at some of the info updates earlier on. I found them interesting because they didn't just update and replace info. Instead, they used strikethrough to show what info had been updated or replaced. Watch the press conferences and examine those interactions. What role did public relations play in this tragedy and was it done ethically and effectively?

An OJ story that interests me

I've pretty well established that I cannot stand the OJ Simpson story and the attention it's getting (I try to keep my opinions out of this blog but this one ... ugh).
In any case, the New York Times has an interesting piece on the hotel where OJ is said to have committed his infraction and their refusal to rent out the room in question. It strikes me as a nice moment of pride over profit.
How do you feel about "tragedy haunting"? Should the place Nicole Brown was killed be on a Hollywood tour map? Should Anna Nicole's suite be open to the public? Do the media promote this kind of voyeurism?