Firefighter’s Facebook private or public?
We have linked on STLtoday to the Facebook page of slain firefighter Ryan Hummert, as a means of providing more information about him.
STLtoday has added a link to another Facebook page of remembrances of Mr. Hummert.
The whole area was rocked this morning by the shootings of Hummert and two police officers in Maplewood. Our hearts and prayers are with the victims, their families and friends.
The Facebook link is a means of reporting biographical information about Mr. Hummert — information he apparently was comfortable sharing on his open Facebook page. As in all tragedies, there’s a balancing act in reporting facts about victims. We all want to know the human side of victims – in stories about accidents, shootings, other crimes. A report with names and numbers only would do a disservice to the people involved, and to readers. But the press needs to be sensitive to the feelings of friends and families.
The link has prompted this email complaint: “What kind of classlessness is the Post stooping to? A person’s facebook page is for their friends, not for you to plaster all over the front cover of your website. That is no way to honor and respect a dead fireman. I ask that you take that down.”
In big stories like this, reporters use as many sources as possible. Our online and print reporters have called police departments involved, firehouses, hospitals, witnesses neighbors, families. As is typical, online sources provide much information. Facebook pages are frequent sources in news stories.
Is a victim’s Facebook page a legitimate source? Is linking to it different than merely quoting from it?
Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
I see nothing wrong with linking to a facebook or even myspace page. People could just as easily go to facebook and search for the same person by their name and get to the page themselves. Therefore the page isn’t private at all. If a person chooses to set their page private then the link wouldn’t help at all so it’s really a moot point. Remember that anything you type online on a public site is available to the whole world, they just have to look hard enough to find it.
I was shocked to see the link. I have both Facebook and MySpace pages and I know I didn’t sign up for them with the idea that they may be my legacy to strangers should a tragedy befall me. I think it’s morbid curiosity that would fuel anyone to go to his page and I’m disgusted that the Post would encourage this by posting the link on their webpage.
If you want to “quote” his page as a source of background information then do so, and let people make their decisions on your credibility as a news source. If someone wants to find the page on their own, let them do the work to find it. Posting the link and directing people to go there is disrespectful and not responsible journalism. It only reflects negatively on you.
While I would not call it a classless move, or lazy journalism, I would like to compare it to a funeral. Out of decency to a friends memory we often highlight only the positive side of a person. Personality pages such as facebook or myspace may or may not bring that to light. Since he is being honored, I would think that in his case you might want to leave it alone for those freinds of his that would be grieving and would want to connect to it without misc. people dropping by, While I personally wouldn’t be bothered by it, as I would be gone, those that remain may still want that space for themselves.
So I guess in this particular tragedy, I personally would have left it be to those that knew and loved him.
I do not think the link to his facebook page is appropriate. The page may be public, but I agree that the page is for friends. Photos may be on that page that are appropriate for friends, but not the general public. Personally, my page has all the privacy settings set on “high”, and I would not be happy with the situation if it concerned someone I knew. Many people still do not understand that facebook info can become commom public knowledge.
I do think it is fine to link the facebook group set up in his rememberance, as that is a more open group that many people would search for, and invite people to join.
It might not be an invasion of privacy but it shows absolutely no class or respect on the part of the Post-Dispatch.
Don’t post a Facebook link as a stopgap while you hustle together a proper obituary for a man who gave his life for the sake of others.
I’m young. I use Facebook. I’m warned frequently by professors that items on a public profile are _public_ and that care should be taken to represent yourself on such social networks.
Looking through the coverage, I don’t see anything that leads me to believe that the Post-Dispatch is utilizing Facebook as a source. Not only that, but there is plenty of coverage regarding the mourning of friends and family, that I can’t agree with the opinion that the link was put up in lieu of “real coverage” or “real journalism” either.
To me, the links represent something more along the lines of “this was Ryan Hummert and here is where people can get together and communicate with one another.”
Linking to a profile as a resource is not the same as quoting it. In my eyes, this provides a validation of both the community aspect of “social networking” and the mission of journalism to be community-oriented and to provide a service to that community.
http://www.miketigas.com/?p=615
Public. It’s in the public arena. How could it be considered private? But, of course, the information should be handled delicately at a time like this.