False identities in cyberspace

Had a fascinating chat with a 202 lab this week on social networking identities and journalism ethics. We dove into the tough question of "how accurately does your Facebook profile portray you?" If something happened to you today, would your profile adequately cover your life for purposes of a news story or obituary? Mine wouldn't.
Are social networking profiles real? Or are they more of a "performance space," where you try to be things you're not? Do we only put part of ourselves online?
And what happens when they're purposely manipulated? A new libel case arose this month in Illinois, where four high school students are accused of creating a fake and defamatory Facebook profile for a student athlete. Read the complaint. Harmless kid prank or ruinous to reputation?
Social networking hoaxes are not new. Recall the MySpace hoax linked to a teen suicide.

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.

MySpace Suicide Update

Washington Post has an excellent piece today on the MySpace suicide case we discussed at length earlier. At first glance, I must admit, I thought, "Geez, Post, you're pretty late to this story." But the piece benefits from the distance. It has a better grasp of the response than others I've read. Definitely worth a look.

MySpace Suicide update

The New York Times has an interpretive take on the MySpace suicide case we discussed last month. And they chose to name the mother who contributed to the bullying.

MySpace Suicide -- And Us

OK, 202ers. Go back and read the previous post on MySpace and the comments to it.
One of the commenters has posted personal numbers and harsh commentary on the Drews. The commenter is anonymous (s/he shows a first name but no profile ... s/he could be in our class but also could be a member of the public following our blog).
Does this change your thoughts about the case overall? What do I do as moderator ... take it down or let it live? We talked in lecture and discussion about journalism, blogs and the space in between. What is it we're doing here? We're commenting on journalism but are our comments journalism? And what responsibilities do we have?

MySpace Suicide

A paper is taking heat for this story about a teen's suicide after she was targeted in a scheme to set up a fake MySpace character. The character was used to gather information that was then used against her socially. She killed herself about a year ago.
The story is tragic, but the paper is being criticized not for running it, but for not naming the adults involved in the fake account.
Read the piece and tell me what you think. Then read the comments posted at the bottom and tell me if that alters your view. Then go to some blogs (here's one), which have outed the offending adults, and follow the comment threads. What do those add to the equation?
I have pretty strong feelings on this one ...