Blog 2B
A journalist’s role I think that crowd-sourcing can be a useful tool to gather information, but I think it is the journalist and newsroom as a whole’s job to verify that information. The the officials that would know whether the information is correct or not are the ones that should be contacted in that situation, not the random person on Twitter the information came from. It is their responsibility to the community to provide the most accurate information out there and in a timely manner.
I feel that doxing isn’t a bad thing to do if you’re doing it for the right reasons. If you’re trying to find more information about a story or a person to interview and want to be prepared I don’t think it’s wrong and is part of the research process. But I think there is an ethical concern when you are using information against someone in a black mailing situation or just to make someone look bad. I think that when Minneapolis city councilwoman Alondra Cano posted the private phone numbers and emails of critics who wrote about her involvement in a Black Lives Matter rally on her Twitter account. This was an unethical decision that was intended to make others look bad and is not a proper use of doxing.
I did agree with the situation in March of 2015, when former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling used doxing to identify people on Twitter who were making sexually explicit comments about his teenage daughter. As a journalist I don’t think it would be professional if I did something in that manner but as an athlete and father who is in the media constantly I feel he had a write to protect his child and that may have been the only way for him to get the information.
I think the best way to put social media moments into context is too look at what posts are similar and see if you can piece a story of events together to make sense of it all. I would perhaps message the people making the posts and see what they have to say and see if people say similar things.
If I were to cover a breaking news situation similar to the Boston Marathon Bombing I would try to verify all the information I found on social media with officials who would know the answers. I wouldn’t feel comfortable putting information out to the public under my name or my stations name without verifying it first. I think it would be a disservice to the community and could make whatever the breaking news situation worse.
