Facebook or MySpace for Sourcing?

[overthehill]

Curious to hear how you and your station(s) use social networks like Facebook or MySpace for sources?

Has it ever been helpful? Has it led you astray?

Have you ever snared a picture of someone from their Facebook page to use on air? Say a college student involved in scandal, injured or killed?

To you feel comfortable using info you find on Facebook/My Space?

[Doubledeez]

We have used it for information, and for pictures.
Example is a couple of weeks ago, we had a local soldier killed in Iraq. We googled his name, up came his myspace page. We took information off his page as far as where he was serving, what unit he was with, and some family information. Off his sister's page, we took some pictures of him. We only knew it was him because it matched pictures emailed to us by the school district he graduated from. But, it was used as a secondary source. I don't know about using it for other sorts of stories, though.

[MISS OBVIOUS]

I check them both all of the time, but only use the pic if I know what they look like and I am positive it is that person. Very helpful.

[bw3508]

Anyone watch Pittsburgh's AM news today? A tragic homicide & attempted suicide: boyfriend stabs 16 year old girlfriend before stabbing himself. At least one station used several comments on the girl's facebook wall left by friends after the tragedy for the am updates, along with pictures.

[BrgrKing15]

HA! Our station forbids us from even logging onto MySpace!

[Galaxian]

My station only used Myspace once to find pictures about a kid who killed his girlfriend, and then killed himself. A reporter suggested we check, which we did, and we found pictures of the two, as well as posts from the kid talking about "being together forever," which made it sound like this was some sort of Romeo and Juliet bull****.

It made for a great story, though the girl's older sister was mad at us (and the other stations and newspapers) for prowling on Myspace. Oh well.

[Doubledeez]

My station's internet nazi has banned Myspace and Facebook as well. How many stations out there are banning the sites?

[Fargin Icehole]

Originally posted by Doubledeez:
My station's internet nazi has banned Myspace and Facebook as well. How many stations out there are banning the sites?Sadly, we do not. We have an anchor who is CONSTANTLY screwing with Myspace during the show on the set laptop computer (we can see it being done). It's a distraction and is starting to affect the show.

What galls me daily is that before script-writing and other "real work" is done, this person just HAS to check out anything new on her Facebook page. graemlins/face_banghead.gif

(I'm writing this on break by the way...actually got one today).

[news rookie]

we used to be banned, but aren't anymore.

i've used it multiple times to get pictures. (did today actually!) i agree you need to have reason to believe the person you found is in fact who you think it is - but i see no reason not to use the pictures if you're sure. we had a situation where a baby was beaten to death by the mother and her boyfriend. i myspaced the mom, no pictures of the baby.. clicked around a little, found the daddy, the mother had written several comments on his wall - and to pictures he had of the child. we got the picture when no one else did... we also found out he was coming to town and spoke exclusively with him. thank you myspace.

[LittleBabyPuppy]

Those sites really come in handy for dead soldier stories.

[ August 24, 2007, 11:46 PM: Message edited by: LittleBabyPuppy ]

[wxgeek]

Just throwing this out there...aren't you opening yourself up to lawsuits for copyright violations if you use pictures that are not given to you?

[Oh Snap]

We've used Myspace to get photos and to track down and contact family members and friends for follow up stories on soldiers who have died or kids who have committed crimes. In one case, when we reported info from on teen's Myspace page on the air, his friends used his page to message us on how we could contact them.

But it's kind of like using Wikipedia... you have to be really careful. Sometimes you come across great information, but it might not be accurate.

As far as the legality of using photos... if someone has posted them on their own website without a copyright, I would think it would be fine. We use yearbook photos all the time, but don't contact the yearbook company to ask for permission... Is that illegal?

[AEnVA]

Originally posted by wxgeek:
Just throwing this out there...aren't you opening yourself up to lawsuits for copyright violations if you use pictures that are not given to you?Copytight protects the person taking the picture and not the customer. By even putting a professional photo online can be considered a violation of copyright laws. In terms of your run of the mill picture I don't believe they have protection since 1.) they are not professional with a copyright (lick professional pictures have on the back) and 2.) since they are online they are in the public domain to be viewed and used according to the First Amendment.

[foxravens]

Originally posted by LittleBabyPuppy:
Those sites really come in handy for dead soldier stories."Dead Soldier Stories"???

[SamG]

Originally posted by Oh Snap:
As far as the legality of using photos... if someone has posted them on their own website without a copyright, I would think it would be fine.I would be careful there. What if someone illegally copied a movie or song and posted it? Are you allowed to use it?
We use yearbook photos all the time, but don't contact the yearbook company to ask for permission... Is that illegal?Maybe. Just because it's not enforced doesn't mean it's legal.

[McCovey Cove Returns]

We've used both to track people down and locate pictures of people. They've both been very nice resources so far. You'd be surprised at the number of people that have pages on these websites along with the people that maintain them. We've found everything from US troops in Iraq to murder suspects.

Typically for pictures, we send an e-mail to the page's creator before lifting what we want. The whole courtesy/copyright thing.

[ August 27, 2007, 11:51 AM: Message edited by: McCovey Cove Returns ]