Del Rocco case

The issues presented by social networking sites are very intriguing to me, and I hope everyone. I honestly think that a lot of the decision-making when it comes to these issues is a matter of common sense. Think about what you personally would do, or how you would feel if you were in that exact situation and someone used your Facebook or MySpace account without your direct consent for the good of a story and then make your decision.

For instance in regards to the Virginia Tech shooting where the article says that journalists were using the Facebook update feed to get leads on people to try to interview after such a wide-spread tragedy is amazing to me. In a situation like this, where multiple people have just died, that could or could not (you just don’t know) have direct connections to some of the deceased are posting on Facebook, they should simply be left alone.

I feel different about the Bailey and Del Rocco instance. Del Rocco has some information on her Facebook that is incredibly newsworthy, and could help in the formation of a current, local murder case. I feel that as long as her identity were kept hidden and protected that posting some of her Facebook statuses is not an unethical thing. She clearly wanted people to know the things she said, otherwise she wouldn’t have posted them on a website like Facebook for all to see.

Using some of the Facebook statuses, while protecting her identity is probably giving her more protection than she deserves. To put the things that she put on Facebook, she had to have known that all of her friends would be talking, and gossiping about the posts anyways, it’s why we put our every thought on Facebook, is to be talked about.

I think that Bass should have to look at the potential damages to her reputation (I don’t see any), and the newsworthiness of the information. I think that there would not be any damages and it is very newsworthy.