During our last class we discussed the ethics of journalism. We debated over many different scenarios, such as releasing information to the public about a person’s past history, government information, and much much more. While discussing the ins and outs of journalism, as well as the several different ethical dilemmas that one can face, we briefly touched on the question as to whether or not it’s ethical to “live tweet” a murder trial.
I personally am not a stranger to live tweeting, during the finale of AMC’s Breaking Bad my friends and I all live tweeted and then went back and compared notes about what struck out to us the most. https://dev.twitter.com/media/live-tweeting However, to do it for a murder trial, as a journalist, is nowhere near the same thing, and definitely brings up a certain moral dilemma. One argument against it is that it bring an added level of media attention to an already tender tragedy. In 2011 a mass murderer named Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in Norway, and journalists had planned to live tweet his murder trial. Murderers tend to love attention of all kinds, and by live tweeting their trial it’s giving them that attention, in a very real and interactive way. http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/live-tweeting-murder-trials_b21103
However, while there may be some ethical wrinkles still to be ironed out, live tweeting in any form is now a way to give an extreme amount of detail to any kind of major event. Twitter has become the teletype of today, and allows us to transfer information very quickly, and to be live all the time. However, as journalists we need to ensure that we steer clear of ethical dilemmas.
Embrace the Hornswoggle 