Don’t Tweet & DeleteKarlie Frank, Helen Reed, Terese Lambrinides and Tino Bovenzi

#SickNotDead

● CNN reported that Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew was dead, CCTV, Sina and Phoenix Chinese News as well.

● Yew was sick with Pneumonia, in critical condition, but not dead.

● CNN deleted Tweets, Sina and Phoenix apologized.

● http://www.imediaethics.org/News/10112/Cnn__chinese_news_sites_hoaxed__singapores_1st_pm_not_dead.php

● Mistakes about breaking news existed long before Twitter

● Twitter now allows for news to be distributed faster and corrected faster

● Examples: NY Times & The Titanic, Chicago Tribune & Truman Election, Dallas Radio & JFK Assassination, 9/11 Reporting

#HistoricalOverview

@Twitter

● Is not to blame for inaccuracies● But it does turn everyone with a smartphone

into a citizen journalist.● Rapid reaction tweeting can lead to accuracy

problems● Lots of examples of news networks tweeting

erroneously

#NavyYardShooting

● How many shooters? CNN stated “multiple” shooters were involved

● Aaron Alexis, 34, killed 12 people Sept. 16, 2013

● NBC, CBS identified a suspect, just happened to be the wrong one

● http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/news-outlets-often-stumble-in-quest-for-speed-and-accuracy/2013/09/16/e5444820-1f19-11e3-8459-657e0c72fec8_story.html

#ClearingTheAir

#PaternoDeath● Joe Paterno was announced

dead via Twitter by Onward State, online Penn State student news.

● Also by CBS blogger Adam Jacobi

● Reports were false and Jacobi fired, Onward State managing editor resigned.

● http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/160270/how-false-reports-of-joe-paternos-death-were-spread-and-debunked

@SteveJobs #Dead?

● Shira Lazar, celebrity blogger for What’s Trending, tweeted Jobs was dead in 2011

● Jobs was not, so she lost her job● CBS denied any news affiliation

with Lazar, even though her show appeared weekly on CBS.com

● http://fortune.com/2011/09/11/steve-jobs-death-tweet-costs-shira-lazar-her-cbs-news-gig/

#BombsAway● NBC being sued for Libel and

Slander for Jeff Rossen tweeting about a Tannerite explosive target product.

● http://www.ijreview.com/2015/03/284419-explosive-target-maker-tannerite-sues-nbc-local-affiliate-slander/

● “I am basically holding a Bomb in my hand”

● Rossen has 27K Followers

#NotSoExclusive● Fake account: “Exclusive:

@PiersMorgan suspended from his CNN show while investigations continue following new revelations on alleged phone hacking claims”

● Editors from Reuters, Guardian and Independent tweeted report along with Channel 4 Jon Snow’s most memorable: “Piers Morgan suspended by CNN over phone hacking...the rise and rise, the fall and rise, and fall of Piers Morgan!”

● News was not true, and Snow looked like a jerk

@felixsalmonFinancial journalist Felix Salmon says….

“The point about social media is that it’s social — as a general rule, it’s people talking to each other, as opposed to declaiming the Truth in a broadcasty manner. I’m happy to be wrong on my blog...but I’m even happier to be wrong on Twitter, which is a forum where things disappear quickly and the stream is infinitely more valuable than any individual tweet. I consider my tweets in general and my retweets in particular to be a contribution to the stream; I’m not placing my personal or institutional reputation behind their accuracy.”

#FoodForThought● Is Twitter a “conversation” where it’s okay to make factual mistakes

regardless of your occupation?● Do journalists on independent twitter accounts have less obligation to fact

check sources before retweeting than institutional news accounts?● Does using terms like “allegedly” and “according to reports by X” clear

journalists of responsibility for spreading inaccurate news?

#SavingFace

● Admitting the wrong can make people have more trust in journalists

● Mistakes happen, it’s how we as journalists make up for them if they do happen

● Most cases the journalist is fired● Can be sued for Libel, Slander

#ThinkBeforeYouTweet

● Accuracy checklist ● Instead of deleting a tweet, send out an

“update” tweet● Deleting a tweet makes you look like trying

to hide something

“Un-tweeters”

•According to Ethics Alarm, “Several Republican politicians leapt on the “Welcome Home Bowe!” bandwagon without bothering to a) learn the details and more importantly to them, sadly, b) gauge the reaction of their constituents, contributers and supporters.”•This was about the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdhal who was a U.S. army solider who was held captive by the Taliban.•When these politicians realized their mistakes they didn’t try to fix their errors or take responsibility, instead they deleted their posts which only made them look untrustworthy.

#TwibelCases

•As twitter becomes more and more popular, anything being said or deleted is being brought up in court cases.•“Statements on Twitter can form the basis of a defamation lawsuit just as much as any form of publication,” explained David Ardia, an assistant professor of law at the University of North Carolina. “It’s just sometimes with new technology, it takes a little longer for people to start to take what they read seriously enough — and more importantly for lawyers — to pay enough attention to start to bring lawsuits based on it.”

#TwibelCases•There is a lot of confusion about whether or not tweets are libelous.

•There now “social media guidelines” that help journalist in the right direction to decide what is ethical and what is not.

• These guidelines were updated again after “NBA referee Bill Spooner sued because sportswriter Jon Krawczynski tweeted that Spooner was calling fouls to compensate for bad calls. Spooner, who considered the tweet defamatory, asked the court for more than $75,000 in damages and requested a court order to delete the tweet. AP Spokesman Paul Colford said only, the “case is in litigation.”

•If the tweet would have been deleted before hand the entire case would have gone differently

#D#DoNotDeleteThatTweet•“Its almost always better to correct than unpublish”- Scott Rosenberg

•Deleting tweets is seen as unethical by many but that may not even be an option anymore.

•“According to Technology researcher Gartner Inc., predicts that by the end of 2013, half of all companies will have been asked to produce material posted on social networks as part of discovery for a lawsuit.”

• “Such changing business practices as well as government regulations in financial industries and lawsuits over improperly deleted social media communications are causing more companies to consider using archiving software.”

•With the implication of an archiving software, it shows you are better off correcting what was wrong instead of deleting in the first place.

#Sources● http://galleryhip.com/twitter-bird-logo-transparent.html● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_PnuXelvWA&feature=youtu.be&t=1m44s● http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/news-outlets-often-stumble-in-quest-for-speed-and-accuracy/2013

/09/16/e5444820-1f19-11e3-8459-657e0c72fec8_story.html● http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/160270/how-false-reports-of-joe-paternos-death-were-spread-and-debu

nked/● http://fortune.com/2011/09/11/steve-jobs-death-tweet-costs-shira-lazar-her-cbs-news-gig/● http://www.imediaethics.org/News/10112/Cnn__chinese_news_sites_hoaxed__singapores_1st_pm_not_dead.p

hp● http://www.ijreview.com/2015/03/284419-explosive-target-maker-tannerite-sues-nbc-local-affiliate-slander/● http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/09/media-was-always-bad-reporting-breaking-news-brief-history/69464/● http://www.adweek.com/news/television/piers-morgan-tweet-heard-round-world-133746● http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/07/28/being-wrong-on-twitter/● http://ethicsalarms.com/2014/06/05/ethics-dunces-the-republican-un-tweeters/#more-22350● http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/141987/what-journalists-need-to-know-about-libelous-tweets/● http://www.workforce.com/articles/don-t-delete-that-tweet

Whose Mistake Was It Anyways??