PressEthic

Almost everyone has heard of myspace.com, an internet site that allows anyone with a valid email address to create their own profile, make friends with other users, and trade pictures and messages with them. On Thursday I stumbled on an article from my local paper ,The Cape Cod Times, that claimed myspace was a dangerous place, a haven for pedophiles and perverts attempting to prey on teens. What really irked me about the article had nothing to do with their view of the site, but their publishing of pieces of kid’s profiles, and including their names and hometowns. One of the unfortunate victims of this breach of ethics was my younger sister’s friend, Deirdre. The paper mockingly prints a statement from her myspace profile, in which she said that she smoked pot with her dad. Attached to this little bit of info, was her name, her age, and her town. The reporter did not inform Deirdre of this, or ask her consent because really how could he? It is the internet afterall. What rules do apply when gathering information from websites like these?

Cape Cod is made up of several small towns, where within those towns everybody pretty much knows everybody else. When I read the article I immediately knew who it was, and I am sure most other residents of the town of Eastham, where I am from, knew it too. How many 18 year-old Deidre’s live in Eastham? Not many that’s for sure. So I began to wonder, is this ethical? The internet does lie in the realm of a public domain, but regardless of that, what was the point of printing this young girl’s name, age, and hometown in the paper? She was the only person mentioned by name, and in my opinion her family as well as herself was significantly smeared by this. Is what we put on the internet, within our face book.com profiles, AIM profiles, or myspace.com profiles, really fair game in terms of reporting? Many times what we put in those profiles, we don’t intend the whole world to see. I am sure that Deirdre, when writing her myspace profile, believed her parents would never see what she put in it, never mind her entire town.

In any case, I believe the reporter made a unethical decision in terms of attaching her name to such a heavy statement. While he did put her name in quotes, which could have meant to distinguish that this was not her real name, it really did absolutely nothing. Leaving her name out would not have gotten Deidre in trouble, and really would not have taken anything away from the story. This is a prime example of poor reporting, poor editing and a breach of journalistic ethics that truly makes me want to write a scathing article to The Cape Cod Times.