An abcnews.com article (above) ran September 12 about an issue that has the media in a flurry. A Colorado reporter chose to cover the funeral of a 3-year old boy in real-time, using Twitter.
Twitter is a social networking site that is unique in that the updates provided are 140 characters or less. It's like they took the "what are you doing" section of Myspace or Facebook and made it it's own animal. The website has a cheerful aqua background with a bubble motif. It's fun-looking and many people "twit" funny things they think of throughout the day.
Martin Kudlis was a 3-year-old boy who was tragically killed when a pickup truck crashed into the ice-cream shop Martin was in. His funeral was September 10th.
I guess because we're a morbid country, reporters were allowed into the funeral service, reportedly by the family. Some might ask the family's motivation in allowing media coverage of their young Martin's funeral. More might wonder why a Colorado journalist thought it would be a good idea to "tweet" the funeral.
This decision, made by Berny Morson of Rocky Mountain News (and allegedly supported by the paper itself), has caused a hubub in the media world, with ethical, human decency, and the tenents of journalistic integrity being called into question.
If you have a Twitter account, you can go right to the "scene of the crime"
http://twitter.com/RMN_Berny
If you don't, here is a look at one of the posts, captured by UK blogger Laura Oliver:
Twitter is a social networking site that is unique in that the updates provided are 140 characters or less. It's like they took the "what are you doing" section of Myspace or Facebook and made it it's own animal. The website has a cheerful aqua background with a bubble motif. It's fun-looking and many people "twit" funny things they think of throughout the day.
Martin Kudlis was a 3-year-old boy who was tragically killed when a pickup truck crashed into the ice-cream shop Martin was in. His funeral was September 10th.
I guess because we're a morbid country, reporters were allowed into the funeral service, reportedly by the family. Some might ask the family's motivation in allowing media coverage of their young Martin's funeral. More might wonder why a Colorado journalist thought it would be a good idea to "tweet" the funeral.
This decision, made by Berny Morson of Rocky Mountain News (and allegedly supported by the paper itself), has caused a hubub in the media world, with ethical, human decency, and the tenents of journalistic integrity being called into question.
If you have a Twitter account, you can go right to the "scene of the crime"
http://twitter.com/RMN_Berny
If you don't, here is a look at one of the posts, captured by UK blogger Laura Oliver:
Some have said that Morson's "tweet" of the funeral was cutting-edge and up-to-the-minute with the proceedings, so that people who wanted to know what was going on had an advantage. Others have asked what the difference is between having someone cover the funeral real-time and write about it after they left. Personally, I think that Morson's actions crossed the line of decency and propriety, and that Twitter is a tool best left for things of a less serious nature.
What do you think?
1 comment:
That sounds similar to using a cell phone throughout the service. Such disrespect!
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