Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

The BBC reported last week that the “use of material taken from personal profiles on social networks by newspapers is to be the subject of a major consultation undertaken by industry watchdog the Press Complaints Commission (PCC)” in the United Kingdom. I wonder if this is something the Irish Press Council will address also.

I’ve heard from one or two sources that picture editors go to social networking sites like Bebo to get images of members of the public who feature in news stories. One interesting piece of criticism the BBC article points out is around the Virginia Tech school shootings:

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech school shootings some felt that journalists had invaded what were essentially private online spaces. The behaviour of a few pushy reporters gave rise to the term: “digital door-stepping”.

The first thing that popped into my head in this context was the use of images and quotes in reports on suicide in Ireland. Media reporting on suicides is a contentious issue already and the use of material from social networking sites only makes it murkier.

Irish socialite and former Miss World, Rosanna Davidson, also made her Bebo profile private last year after numerous media reports about her online activity. Ronan O’Gara, scrum half for the national rugby team, was also subject to a photoshopped image that did the rounds on the Internet before becoming the subject of discussion on radio chat shows.

Obviously there is a good degree of self-education to be done by the public, what you put online is effectively there for all to see even though a lot of people don’t realise it. That being said it’s a shady area as to what should and can be used in the press.