The BBC News website has published an analysis I wrote on the tangled web of the Spitzer scandal, the prostitute and social media. It discusses how young adults such Ashley Alexandra Dupre make it easy for journalists and bloggers to find out intimate details about them by posting deeply personal information on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The creator of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, summed up
PDF The issue over the use of photos of Ashley Alexandra Dupre taken from social networking sites like MySpace has just taken another twist. Her court-appointed attorney, Kelley Drye’s Don D. Buchwald, has attacked the media for invading his client’s privacy. The press release (PDF) from the attorney says the alleged call girl was “thrust into the public glare at age 22 without her consent”. He goes on to accuse some
The mystery of Ashley Alexandra Dupre’s disappearing MySpace page is solved. The profile of Eliot Spitzer’s alleged call girl at myspace.com/ninavenetta was accidentally deleted by MySpace, in response to the flood of people checking out her profile. This set off a feeding frenzy between cyber squatters jostling for control of the hottest space on the social networking site. The profile changes hands frequently, as MySpace canceled accounts, before finally restoring
Following the resignation of New York Governor Elliot Spitzer, the media turned its attention to the woman before his downfall, 22-year old Ashley Alexandra Dupre, otherwise known as Kristen. Much of the background information on her, as well as photos, have come from social networking sites, such as MySpace. Gawker is looking to satisfy the more voyeuristic among us by producing what it called Kristen: The Definitive Gallery. That MySpace
The newspaper watchdog in the UK, the Press Complaints Commission, is stepping into the debate over the use of material from social networking sites. The head of the body, Tim Toulmin, told the BBC that the organisation has commissioned research to find out if people are aware that material they upload could be used by journalists. It follows complaints to the PCC from people about material used by the press
The BBC has e-mailed staff over the use of photos from social networking sites, reports the MediaGuardian. It advices journalists to be cautious about the use of such personal material. The advice goes beyond talking about issues copyright and verification, mentioning the idea of “intended audiences“. The e-mail told staff that: Simply because material may have been put into the public domain may not always give the media the right
As it is coming up to the end of the year, journalists are busy putting together lists looking ahead to 2008. The Guardian has published a list of what it reckons could be the next big thing in social media, such as video site Seesmic.com and social travel site Dopplr.com. The BBC has a slightly different take, with a list of lesser-known social networking sites, under the headline, “Don’t be
Some visitors to the BBC News website will have noticed a little box appearing at the bottom of stories with a range of social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Reddit. With a simple click of a button, you can now share a BBC story with your friends. It explains, for one, why so many BBC stories are appearing on my friends’ pages in Facebook. Writing on the BBC Editors’
A piece by Slate “outing” Rudy Giuliani’s daughter apparent support for Barack Obama once again raises questions about Facebook. Slate reports that that according to the 17-year-old Caroline Giuliani’s Facebook profile, she’s supporting Barack Obama, rather than her father, for president. The magazine was able to see her profile as it was not locked, meaning that anyone with access to the Harvard or Trinity School networks could see her detailed
The rise of social media poses new ethical dilemmas for journalists. One of these is whether journalists on Facebook should befriend their sources. Adding a source as a “friend” could lead to accusations of bias, but not doing so could risk offending your contact. The CBC has stepped into this ethical morass by instructing its journalists to avoid adding sources or contacts as friends. A policy document distributed to CBC